Hecla Mining (HL): Securing North America’s Strategic Silver Supply

The Growing Investment Case For Silver

Los metales preciosos, especialmente el oro, han ocupado históricamente un lugar especial en el sistema monetario, como base de formas de dinero más “blandas”, como monedas de metales no preciosos, billetes de papel y libros de contabilidad digitales.

Este papel se debilitó con el fin de la convertibilidad del dólar en 1971 y aún más con el surgimiento de alternativas creíbles, como Bitcoin.

Sin embargo, esto no ha impedido que el oro supere a casi todas las demás inversiones en los últimos años, en respuesta a la explosión de tensiones internacionales tras el inicio de la guerra en Ucrania y las crecientes deudas estadounidenses.

Fuente: Precio de oro

A companion to gold as a “hard currency” has always been silver, with the gray metal equally used for coinage, historically.

Sin embargo, las preocupaciones sobre la inflación, la geopolítica y el desorden monetario son sólo una parte de la historia de la plata.

Lo que históricamente era un metal usado principalmente en joyería y acuñación de monedas es hoy un metal industrial crucial, especialmente para la electrónica, y la piedra angular de la revolución de la energía verde, siendo la producción de paneles solares ahora un importante impulsor de la demanda de plata.

Otra parte de la historia es que la producción de plata fresca proveniente de la minería está teniendo dificultades para satisfacer la demanda, agotando el inventario con el tiempo.

Lastly, since the end of the direct monetary role of gold and silver in the global monetary system, the silver-to-gold ratio has fluctuated, with silver becoming less precious than gold over time. If silver is getting used again for investment purposes, this could change.

Fuente: Inversiones de Aberdeen

Si bien no se discute tanto sobre ella ni es tan valiosa como el oro, la plata puede tener tanto o más potencial alcista que el metal amarillo.

La demanda de plata más allá de los metales preciosos

Silver As An Industrial Metal

Si bien es probable que el aumento de la demanda con fines de inversión sea la causa del aumento de los precios de la plata en 2025, también es un metal cada vez más crucial para fines industriales a medida que el mundo se electrifica.

Como la plata es el mejor de todos los elementos químicos en términos de conductividad térmica y eléctrica, es un material crucial para paneles solares, baterías, inversores y otros dispositivos eléctricos, como fusibles y relés.

La electrónica, las soldaduras resistentes a la corrosión, los vendajes médicos y los desinfectantes componen el resto de la demanda.

Por lo tanto, incluso en el caso de que nunca se produzca una re-monetización de la plata, la inversión en este metal puede basarse principalmente en la creciente demanda derivada de la electrificación y la digitalización, mientras que la producción está estancada y ya no logra satisfacer la demanda.

Fuente: Capitalista visual

It is this combination of depleting inventories, insufficient production, and rising industrial demand that has been the trigger for the speculative mania seizing silver markets in January 2026.

How to Invest in Silver Miners

Los inversores interesados ​​en invertir en plata pueden considerar las empresas mineras de plata. Dado que las mineras de plata obtienen la mayor parte de sus ingresos de la diferencia entre los costos de producción y el precio al contado, un aumento suficiente en los precios de la plata puede duplicar, triplicar o incluso más sus márgenes operativos.

As a result, silver miners have a “built-in leverage” included in their business model, creating both more risks and opportunities from increased volatility, without the usual trappings of leveraged bets, such as requirements for cash reserves and the danger of margin calls.

Los yacimientos de plata están distribuidos de forma desigual en la Tierra, con los mayores recursos minerales en Latinoamérica, especialmente en México, Perú y Chile. La producción también es sólida en China, Rusia, Asia Central, Australia y Estados Unidos.

Fuente: Visualizaciones de minería

The issue is that as silver becomes a key industrial metal for the energy transition and other advanced technologies (including military applications), it becomes a strategic resource. So any investor in silver mining needs to worry about the risk of nationalization, windfall taxes, and exports being blocked so that the silver stays within a given nation’s borders.

And certainly, the direction of international relations seems to indicate that silver will soon be considered as strategic as oil. For example, the USA included silver in its October 2025 “List of Critical Minerals”, alongside copper and uranium.

“The Energy Act of 2020 defined critical minerals as those commodities which are essential to the economic or national security of the U.S.; have a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economic or national security of the U.S.“

(Puedes leer más sobre the case for investing in silver and the possible ways to do so in our report “Invertir en plata: análisis a fondo de la demanda, los déficits y los riesgos".)

Energy Crisis & Domestic Production

In parallel to silver shortage and the metal’s growing strategic importance, a massive energy crisis is brewing from the consequences of the war with Iran, which is removing a lot of hydrocarbon supply from the global economy. Already, several countries in Asia are looking at Covid-era-style restrictions to reduce fuel demand.

Meanwhile, China is importing way more silver than ever before, potentially depleting the global stockpile to feed its solar panel industry, which produces the immense majority of all the world’s photovoltaic systems.

Fuente: informe de Bloomberg

If the energy crisis intensifies because the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, it is likely that the demand for solar energy, and therefore silver, will get a massive boost to replace the missing supply of fossil fuels. But also become even more strategically sensitive.

One way to mitigate such geopolitical risks is to invest in silver producers with many operations in many countries and relatively safe jurisdictions, reducing the risk from any individual mine. This can, for example, be done through investing in Pan-America Silver (PAAS ) (follow the link for our investment report on the company).

Another one is to focus on domestic silver producers, which are not likely to suffer from a disruption of energy supply, populist national policies, or trade disruptions.

For North American investors, a good option for this strategy could be Hecla Mining, a company responsible for 37% of all silver mining in the U.S. and 29% in Canada.

Hecla Mining Overview

Hecla Mining’s Strategic Position

Hecla is primarily a silver miner, although it also produces gold, zinc, copper, and lead. The large majority of the company’s revenues is derived from precious metals.

As the silver price rose dramatically at the end of 2025, from just above $30/ounce in April 2025 to $75/ounce a year later, with a spike above $110/ounce in January 2026, the contribution of silver to total earnings is likely going to be proportionally even larger in 2026.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Hecla operates 4 mines in just 2 countries, with all major assets located in the USA and Canada (see below for more details). This includes two of the highest-grade large silver mines in the world.

The company is positioned as one of the lowest-cost U.S. silver producers with margins exceeding 50%, and remarkable realized margins exceeding 75% in 2025.

The company’s focus on quality is also visible in its mineral reserves in the ground, with an average reserve life 2x of its peer group.

The company is also displaying a high level of automation and overall efficiency, for example, being the lowest carbon emitter compared to peers, and has risen massively in its ESG rating since 2019.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Hecla Mining Assets

The main mines of Hecla Mining are 2 silver mines in the USA  + one silver mine & one gold mine in Canada. The US mines are located in Alaska and Idaho, the Canadian mines in Yukon and Quebec.

While the company has four different mines, currently its primary asset is the Greens Creek, which is responsible for more than half of the company’s free cash flow. 52% of the mine revenues are derived from silver production, 27% from gold, and 16% from zinc.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Besides the primary production from fresh ore, Greens Creek also has massive “tailing”, leftover from previous mining from the past decades of activity. Technological progress and higher prices could make the residual metals left in the tailings highly valuable.

The company estimate these 10.4 million of dry stack tailings (DST) could contain as much as $6.8B in gross value from 50 Moz silver, 567,000 ounce of gold, as well as hundreds of millions of ounces in lead and zinc, 27 million ounce of copper, and other critical minerals in high-demand by the Department of Energy and the Department of War to reduce dependency on Chinese supplies: arsenic, barium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, gallium, germanium, manganese, vanadium.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

The other US mine, Lucky Friday, is making 70% of its revenue from silver, the rest from zinc and lead.

Keno Hill in Yukon is almost exclusively producing silver (97% of revenues) and is the largest silver producer in Canada, while Casa Berardi in Quebec is a 100% gold producer.

Overall, the silver mining assets of the company display a unique mix of long reserve lifespan of 12 years to >16 years and high concentration of silver (ore grade), providing cheaper mining cost per ounce.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Strategic Sale Of Casa Berardi

In January 2026, Hecla Mining announced the sale of Casa Berardi for $593 M to Orezone Gold Corporation. The deal breakdown was made of:

• $160M in cash due upon closing.
• Equity approximately 65.7 million Orezone common shares, then valued at approximately $112 million.
• Deferred cash consideration of $80 million, payable in one payment of $30 million at 18 months and one payment of $50 million at 30 months
• Contingent consideration of up to $241 million, comprised of Production-based royalty payments of up to $211 million, permit receipt payment of $20 million upon grant of permits, and Gold price-linked payment of up to $10 million at gold prices exceeding $4,200/oz.

The sale represents a strategic move by Hecla Mining to position itself even more than before as a silver miner first and foremost. The cash the deal frees up is to be used to pay off the leftover debt and finance the expansion of the existing mines to increase their mineral reserves and production.

“Upon closing, this transaction is immediately ROIC accretive and delivers attractive value to our shareholders while enabling us to strengthen our balance sheet while continuing to invest in growth initiatives at our core silver assets, particularly the ramp-up of Keno Hill and our Tier 1 Greens Creek operation.”

Rob Krcmarov -President and Chief Executive Officer of Hecla Mining Company.

Hecla Mining By The Numbers

Hecla Mining’s Production Statistics

The company employs 1,800+ employees and 500+ contractors.

By total mass, silver is by far the largest production of the company, with 17 Moz (Million ounces) produced in 2025, followed by 150,000 ounces of gold. All the other metals are simply byproducts of the primary production, as silver and gold-bearing ores tend to also be mixed with other metals like copper.

However, contrary to many gold and silver production, which is a byproduct of base industrial metal production, especially copper, Hecla Mining is first and foremost a precious metal producer.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Production is expected to stay stable in the short term in the 16 Moz of silver range for 2026, with potentially up to 20 Moz of silver by 2030.

Some of the expected growth will come from the expansion of the Keno Hill mine, and the other part from the potential restart of the “Midas” silver-gold mine in Nevada after 2030.

Hecla Mining’s Financials

The company generated $1.4B in revenues in 2025, up 53% year-to-year. This resulted in a net income applicable to common stockholders of $321 million, or $0.49 per share.

Production costs are among the lowest in the industry, with AISC (All-In Sustaining Costs) of $11.28/ounce.

This means that all other things being equal, Hecla mining production would stay profitable even with silver prices as low as they were at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, and before it took such an important industrial role in the energy transition. And still large free cash flows >$200M / year in the hypothetical fall of silver price by more than 50%.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

One risk with mining companies is that they often have poor capital discipline. This can translate into excessive spending on exploration and acquisitions during high commodity prices, with rising debt, before a collapse in profitability and share prices, and even eventual default during the following lower commodity prices periods.

So it is very important for investors in mining stocks to assess not just the quality of current cash flows and mineral reserves, but also management’s ability to handle what is fundamentally a very cyclical industry.

Hecla has instead been cautious to use the windfall of rising silver & gold prices in 2025, with exploding free cash flow, to reduce its debt by 50%, reaching almost 0 net debt.

This has reduced its debt capitalization (Total Debt/Market Capitalization) from 18% to 2% and its gross leverage below 1x, a solid metric in what is a capital-intensive industry. The leftover of the debt is now being paid off with part of the proceeds from the sale of Casa Berardi.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Hecla Mining’s Future

Razor-Sharp Focus On Silver

With the sale of Casa Berardi, Hecla Mining is making a clear, conscious choice to double down on silver almost exclusively, with a stated strategy of maintaining at the very least silver as >30% of total revenues, and ideally in the 50% range of today, or more.

The company is also not looking to chase new assets or acquisitions that would decrease its high margins. Instead, it wants to maintain >30% ROIC (Return On Invested Capital) on its future silver operations.

Similarly, it is not interested in expanding into new, riskier jurisdictions and will stick to safe ones like the USA and Canada only.

Overall, the company is not opposed to some growth from exploration, but will focus on stable and highly profitable silver operations over growth.

Exploración

Due to its focus on safe jurisdictions, Hecla has restarted exploration projects in the immediate vicinity of existing mines. Not only is the company deeply familiar with the associated geology, but it can also leverage existing mining infrastructures that are already permitted, built, and paid for.

“Equally important, renewed near-mine exploration has resumed after more than a decade of pause, reflecting the improvement in the balance sheet and our confidence in the district’s long history of deep, high-grade silver mineralization. Existing infrastructure provides access to a large radius of exploration potential capable of extending mine life and unlocking additional resources.”

Besides the potential restart of Midas in Nevada, the company is also considering two other sites (Hollister & Aurora) in the same US state. Altogether, the three mines have produced 4.6 Moz of gold and 47 Moz of silver.

Fuente: Minería Hecla

Other exploration projects are all located in the USA and Canada, notably Yukon, Quebec, Nevada, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Colorado.

Hecla’s Mining Role In A Portfolio

Some investors will want exposure to silver for a wide range of macroeconomic and geopolitical reasons: reducing exposure to China, betting on a photovoltaic boom, or a bet on inflation & remonetization of precious metals.

One way is to directly invest in silver, but this can carry risks and costs of holding the physical metal directly. The other option is to invest in silver miners.

In this case, mines in safe jurisdictions, with low to no debt, and low production costs can provide some safety for a long-term investment in a cyclical industry marked by extreme volatility in the recent period.

Hecla Mining matches all of these criteria at once, and can be a good way for North American and Western investors to get exposure to silver with the built-in leverage of miners, but with as controlled as possible risks.

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