Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) Share Price Value Doubles in 2016

December 27, 2016

President and CEO Phillips Baker Jr. of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) says that over the last two years the company has had historic production, and he expects to exceed that production in 2017 with the start of a new mine in Mexico and the expansion of a mine in Quebec.

Hecla’s share price since the beginning of the year has gone from about $2 to well over $5 today. It has been quite a remarkable rise that is substantially more than our peers have experienced…

You have, at Hecla, not only the startup of a new mine in Mexico but the startup of a new open pit at the mine in Quebec, the completion of our #4 Shaft at the Lucky Friday, and you’ve got Greens Creek that is really firing on all the cylinders with substantially more production than it’s had recently. In addition, there was the acquisition of the Montanore project in Montana.

So all of those things together caused this substantial outperformance, which has really created a new base because we believe these are largely sustainable improvements that we’ve been able to accomplish.

And we’ve taken a different attitude than most of the industry. Back in 2014 and 2015, when prices declined, the prevailing attitude was to sell assets, hunker down and underspend your capital requirements, but we didn’t take that approach. Instead, we said, this is the time to invest, to grow. And so as a result of that, we’ve seen the sort of share performance that we’ve had.

Phillips Baker Jr.