The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – January 13, 2023
The Green Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 9.7 million ounces of silver and 48,217 oz of gold during 2022.
An aerial view of the mill and other surface facilities at Keno Hill, a Yukon mine that is expected to contribute 2.5 million ounces to Hecla's 2023 silver production.
With consistently strong production at its Greens Creek Mine in Alaska and a surge at its Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho, Hecla Mining Company shot through the top of its 2022 silver production guidance to 14.2 million ounces of this precious metal that is in high demand for clean energy technologies.
"Hecla is the fastest growing silver producer with a 40% increase in production since 2018. This sustainable growth is due to the continued strong performance of Greens Creek and dramatically higher production from Lucky Friday," said Hecla Mining Company President and CEO Phillips Baker, Jr.
With its new Keno Hill Mine in Canada's Yukon coming online, the Idaho-based mining company could see its silver output jump another 20% in 2023.
"In 2023, with Keno Hill expected to produce more than 2.5 million ounces of silver, Hecla could achieve as much as 17 million ounces of silver production, which reaches our production goal a year earlier than planned and would make Hecla the largest silver producer not only in the United States but also in Canada," Baker added.
While surging production at Lucky Friday and a new stream from Keno Hill are the primary catalysts of Hecla's ongoing silver production growth, the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska remains a sterling foundation that accounted for approximately 68% of the company's 2022 silver production.
With the mill averaging a record 2,502-metric-ton-per-day throughput, Greens creek produced 2.4 million oz of silver and 12,990 oz of gold during the final quarter of 2022. This was enough to exceed the heightened precious metals production expectations for this underground operation near Alaska's capital city of Juneau.
By the end of the third quarter, Hecla had raised its silver production outlook for Greens Creek to 9.3 to 9.6 million oz of silver, about 8% higher than the original guidance, and 44,000 to 48,000 oz of gold, about 10% higher than estimates at the beginning of the year.
Ending the year strong, Greens Creek produced 9.7 million oz of silver and 48,217 oz of gold during 2022, which is roughly a 5% increase over 2021 for both metals.
Hecla's iconic Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho produced 1.2 million oz of silver during the fourth quarter, a 14% increase over the slightly less than 1.1 million oz produced during the previous quarter.
For the year, Lucky Friday produced 4.4 million oz of silver, a 24% jump over the 3.6 million oz produced during 2021.
The increased 2022 silver output is attributable to an 11% increase in mill throughput and 12% higher grades.
"Lucky Friday's production was driven by higher grades and the innovative Underhand Closed Bench mining method," said Baker.
This new mining method developed by Hecla has proven to be both safer and more productive at Lucky Friday.
As a result, record tonnage was mined at Lucky Friday during 2022. This provided ore for the mill to process an average of 978 tons per day last year, a new record for the 80-year-old mining operation.
While Hecla's silver production increased by 10% during 2022, the company's gold output fell by 13% to 201,326 oz last year.
This drop reflects the ending of production at Hecla's Nevada operations, and a lower output from the company's Casa Berardi Mine in Quebec, Canada.
Casa Berardi produced 30,709 oz of gold during the fourth quarter, which is an 8% drop from the previous three months.
As a result, the Quebec operation produced 127,590 oz of gold during 2022, which is down 5% from the 134,590 oz produced during 2021.
This slip in gold output is due to lower grades as ore sourced from the pits accounted for a higher percentage of the mill feed, partially offset by higher throughput and recoveries.
The mill operated at an average of 4,353 tons per day during 2022, an increase of 4% over the prior year, and achieved a record of 4,468 tons per day in the fourth quarter.
Hecla's growth catalyst for 2023 is its new Keno Hill Mine in the Yukon.
In September, Hecla closed a deal to acquire Alexco Resource Corp. and that company's Keno Hill Silver District project in the Yukon.
According to a calculation completed for Alexco prior to Hecla's acquisition, Keno Hill hosts 1.44 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 804 grams per metric ton (37.19 million oz) silver, 3.84% (122 million pounds) zinc, and 2.64% (84 million lb) lead in four deposits – Bellekeno, Lucky Queen, Flame & Moth, and Bermingham.
At the end of 2020, Alexco began to ramp up to commercial production at Keno Hill, but COVID-related staffing issues slowed the restart of operations in the historic silver mining district, and in mid-2021, the company announced that it was shutting down the mill in order to focus on underground development and to ensure the availability of ore.
Hecla, which picked up where Alexco left off, says development remains on schedule and the mine is expected to commence production in the third quarter with a phased ramp-up projected to reach 440 tons per day mill throughput by the end of the year.
Ramp-up and development costs from January until full production is achieved are forecast between US$35 million and US$40 million.
Though commercial production is not expected until near the end of the year, Hecla anticipates that 2023 silver production from the Bermingham and Flame & Moth deposits at Keno Hill to be more than 2.5 million oz.
This 20% boost to Hecla's already impressive North American silver production comes at a time when renewable energy is putting new demands on the precious technology metal.
"With silver's growing use in the solar industry and the focus on clean and green energy, this is an exciting time to be the leading silver producer in the world's best jurisdictions," said Baker.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
Reader Comments(0)