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Dean McDonald vice president – exploration 

larryradford vice president – operations 

“we’re the dominant player in highly prospective districts. we have the land positions; we have the expertise.” 

Hecla expects to meet its goal of 15 million ounces of silver production annually by 2017 — due in no small part to promising developments both at San Juan Silver and at San Sebastian. “We’re the dominant player in highly prospective districts,” says Dean McDonald, Hecla’s vice president — exploration. “We have the land positions; we have the expertise.” That expertise is where Hecla really stands out, adds Larry Radford, vice president — operations. “We’re engineering and developing these projects to move into production,” he says. 

## San SeBaStIan ProPerty, Durango, MexICo 

Hecla’s biggest exploration success came in Mexico, where a new high-grade gold and silver resource — the Middle Vein — was defined approximately 600 feet north of the Hugh Zone resource. 

The Hugh Zone was defined back in 2006; Hecla elected not to advance it unless it could be made larger by other discoveries. Tasked with finding another ore body, the San Sebastian team identified the Andrea Vein in 2011. Combined with the Hugh Zone, the two looked to be an economic, long-term asset. Then, in 2012, the Middle Vein was discovered. It appears to be much higher grade than the Andrea — and logistically much easier to integrate with the Hugh Zone. 

“We’ve always believed that the near-mine areas were prospective,” says exploration manager Stephen Redak, “and this validates that belief. What’s more, there are probably a dozen other veins that we know of.” 

The 185-square-mile project is as big as all of Hecla’s other projects combined. “We think that there are other prospective parts of that land package,” says Redak, “which is why we’re here. All of our targets are high-grade, underground mineable.” 

## San Juan SIlver ProPerty, CreeDe, ColoraDo 

In 2012, Hecla began driving a new access tunnel to evaluate re-opening the Bulldog, a silver and lead mine once operated by Homestake. When it closed in the 1980s, the mine had almost 40 million ounces of silver reserves. The access tunnel will enable confirmation drilling and other activities necessary to move this mine back into production. 

“We were interested in this project for a couple of reasons,” says general manager Randy McClure. “First, it’s an existing resource in a consolidated land package that we own 100 percent of; second, it’s narrow-vein, underground mining — something we’re very good at.” 

## SIlver valley, IDaho 

2012 saw a large surface and underground drilling program — more than 70,000 feet of core — around the Star Complex near Burke. “We’ve done a great job in understanding what we have,” says Silver Valley general manager Steve Petroni. “Our drilling has added resources in eight separate veins at Star, and we are targeting areas with higher silver grades.” Over the next few years there will be less drilling and more focus on how the Star can be part of production growth at the Lucky Friday. 

## Monte CrISto ProPerty, nevaDa 

The 6,100-acre Monte Cristo property in Nevada was acquired in July. Its estimated near-surface resource has enabled Hecla to increase its gold resources 75 percent company-wide. 

