American silver producer Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) said on Tuesday that gold production last year reached 272,873 ounces, an increase of 4% from 2018 and the highest in the company’s history.
The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based
miner also generated 12.6 million ounces of silver last year, or of 22% more
than in 2018, attributing most of the gains to its Greens Creek mine in southeast
Alaska.
The operation, one of the world’s largest
and lowest-cost primary silver mines, churned out 9.9 million ounces of silver —
the highest total since Hecla acquired full ownership in 2008 — and 56,624 ounces
of gold in 2019. From the total, 2.7 million ounces of silver and 15,356 ounces
of gold were produced in the last three months of the year.
Hecla Mining also announced that unionized workers at its Lucky Friday mine, in northern Idaho, have ratified a collective bargaining agreement reached in December. The move ends a 34-month strike, the longest in the Silver Valley region.
The deep underground silver, lead,
and zinc mine, located in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District of northern Idaho,
has been in operations since 1942.
The company reported at the end of
2018 that the strike had cost the company $14.6 million. That year, Lucky
Friday produced 169,041 ounces of silver.