## Note 1: Summary of Significant Accounting Policies 

## HECLA MINING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

A. Principles of Consolidation – Our Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, and include our accounts, our wholly-owned subsidiaries’ accounts and a proportionate share of the accounts of the joint ventures in which we participate. All significant inter-company balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. 

B. Assumptions and Use of Estimates  – Preparing financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts and related disclosure of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses at the date of the consolidated financial statements and reporting periods. We consider our most critical accounting estimates to be future metals prices, obligations for environmental, reclamation and closure matters, mineral reserves, and valuation of business combinations. Other significant areas requiring the use of management assumptions and estimates relate to reserves for contingencies and litigation; asset impairments, including long-lived assets and investments; valuation of deferred tax assets; inventory net realizable value; and post-employment, post-retirement and other employee benefit assets and liabilities. We have based our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable. Accordingly, actual results may differ materially from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions. 

C. Cash and Cash Equivalents  – Cash and cash equivalents consist of all cash balances and highly liquid investments with a remaining maturity of three months or less when purchased and are carried at fair value. Cash and cash equivalents are invested in money market funds, certificates of deposit, U.S. government and federal agency securities, municipal securities and corporate bonds. 

D. Investments and Securities Held for Sale  – We determine the appropriate classification of our investments at the time of purchase and re- evaluate such determinations at each reporting date. Short-term investments include certificates of deposit and held-to-maturity securities, based on our intent and ability to hold the securities to maturity. Marketable equity securities are categorized as available for sale and carried at fair market value. 

Realized gains and losses on the sale of securities are recognized on a specific identification basis. Unrealized gains and losses are included as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), unless an other than temporary impairment in value has occurred, which would then be charged to current period net income (loss). Unrealized gains and losses originally included in accumulated other comprehensive income are reclassified to current period net income (loss) when the sale or determination of an other than temporary impairment of securities occurs. 

E. Inventories –  Inventories are stated at the lower of average costs incurred or estimated net realizable value. Major types of inventories include materials and supplies and metals product inventory, which is determined by the stage at which the ore is in the production process (stockpiled ore and finished goods). Inventories are valued at the lower of full cost of production or net realizable value based on current metals prices. 

Stockpiled ore inventory represents ore that has been mined, hauled to the surface, and is available for further processing. Stockpiles are measured by estimating the number of tons added and removed from the stockpile, the number of contained metal ounces or pounds (based on assay data) and the estimated metallurgical recovery rates (based on the expected processing method). Costs are allocated to a stockpile based on relative values of material stockpiled and processed using current mining costs incurred up to the point of stockpiling the ore, including applicable overhead, depreciation, depletion and amortization relating to mining operations, and removed at each stockpile’s average cost per recoverable unit. 

Finished goods inventory includes doré and concentrates at our operations, doré in transit to refiners and bullion in our accounts at refineries. 

F. Restricted Cash  – Restricted cash and investments primarily represent investments in money market funds and bonds of U.S. government agencies and are restricted primarily for reclamation funding or surety bonds. Restricted cash balances are carried at fair value. 

G. Properties, Plants and Equipment  – Costs are capitalized when it has been determined an ore body can be economically developed. The development stage begins at new projects when our management and/or Board of Directors makes the decision to bring a mine into commercial production, and ends when the production stage, or exploitation of reserves, begins. Expenditures incurred during the development and production stages for new facilities or new assets that extend the useful lives of existing facilities and major mine development expenditures are capitalized, including primary development costs such as costs of building access ways, shaft sinking, lateral development, drift development, ramps and infrastructure developments. 

Costs for exploration, pre-development, secondary development at operating mines, and maintenance and repairs on capitalized property, plant and equipment are charged to operations as incurred. Exploration costs include those relating to activities carried out (a) in search of previously unidentified mineral deposits, (b) at undeveloped concessions, or (c) at operating mines already containing proven and probable reserves, where a determination remains pending as to whether new target deposits outside of the existing reserve areas can be economically developed. Pre- development activities involve costs incurred in the exploration stage that may ultimately benefit production, such as underground ramp development, which are expensed due to the lack of evidence of economic development, which is necessary to demonstrate future recoverability of these expenses. Secondary development costs are incurred for preparation of an ore body for production in a specific ore block, stope or work area, providing a relatively short-lived benefit only to the mine area they relate to, and not to the ore body as a whole. 

Drilling and related costs are either classified as exploration or secondary development, as defined above, and charged to operations as incurred, or capitalized, based on the following criteria: 

y Whether the costs are incurred to further define mineralization at and adjacent to existing reserve areas or intended to assist with mine planning within a reserve area; 

y Whether the drilling costs relate to an ore body that has been determined to be commercially mineable, and a decision has been made to put the ore body into commercial production; and 

y Whether, at the time that the cost is incurred, the expenditure: (a) embodies a probable future benefit that involves a capacity, singly or in combination, with other assets to contribute directly or indirectly to future net cash inflows, (b) we can obtain the benefit and control others’ access to it, and (c) the transaction or event giving rise to our right to or control of the benefit has already occurred. 

If all of these criteria are met, drilling and related costs are capitalized. Drilling costs not meeting all of these criteria are expensed as incurred. The following factors are considered in determining whether or not the criteria listed above have been met, and capitalization of drilling costs is appropriate: 

y Completion of a favorable economic study and mine plan for the ore body targeted; 

