Mining News: News Nuggets: Greens Creek delivers 2M oz. silver in Q1
Gov. Jack Dalrymple wants a sense of greater transparency from the North Dakota Industrial Commission regarding fines imposed on oil and gas operators.
At a June 10 meeting of the commission, the state’s Department of Mineral Resources presented its fourth quarter 2014 report outlining 22 complaints it has issued and accompanying fines and collections. While some of the complaints are tied up in court in order to collect the penalties imposed, many operators paid a percentage of the penalty with a greater amount suspended for one or two years to keep the operators in compliance, which DMR Assistant Director Bruce Hicks says is working well.
“We do not have these operators violating the same rules down the road because they have that suspended amount of money that could be imposed if we have a similar violation,” Hicks said, “so we believe this is the proper way to go.”
Dalrymple felt that the public may still negatively interpret the suspended fines so he requested DMR to include in future reports what actions an operator took that allowed the suspended penalty.
“Otherwise, it just looks funny when you propose a big penalty and they pay a small fraction and there’s no explanation,” Dalrymple said.
Dalrymple serves on the NDIC with Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and they also felt the suspended penalty model works well to change behavior and Stenehjem said it’s good to “always have a substantial penalty of some sort over their heads.”
- Maxine Herr
Hecla Mining Co. April 12 reported that its silver production for the first quarter of 2015 was 2.9 million ounces, a 16 percent increase over the same period last year. Some 2.0 million ounces of this silver was recovered from the Greens Creek Mine in Southeast Alaska, a 14 percent increase from the first three months of 2014. “Greens Creek, with higher grades and recoveries, led another strong operating quarter for Hecla – silver production is among the highest in our history,” said Hecla President and CEO Phillips S. Baker Jr. The Idaho-based silver miner attributes this increased production primarily to mine sequencing, higher silver grades and higher silver and gold recoveries. The company said changes made to the flotation circuit in the fourth quarter is resulting in higher silver recovery, the value of which is being outweighed a slight loss in zinc recovery. The 15,239 ounces of gold produced at Greens Creek during the first quarter exceeded the same period last year by 2 percent. The Greens Creek mill operated at an average of 2,172 tons per day in the first quarter. Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho produced 836,719 ounces of silver during the first quarter of this year, up 20 percent from the same period of 2014. The mill operated at an average of 825 tpd in the first quarter. The company’s Casa Berardi Mine in Quebec recovered 25,412 ounces of gold during the first quarter, down 19 percent from the same period last year. Hecla said the mine experienced lower grades as a result of mine sequencing and recoveries were lower due to new metallurgical characteristics of the ore from the 118 Zone requiring adjustments to the plant which are expected to improve recoveries in the second quarter. The mill operated at an average of 2,090 tpd in the first quarter. “In March we celebrated 50 years on the NYSE, and I see our current mix of three operating mines to be the strongest in our history,” said Baker. “We believe that our portfolio of mines, particularly Greens Creek, which is recognized as a world-class silver mine, provides operating stability to weather current market conditions.” Hecla reported US$194 million of cash and cash equivalents on hand at the end of March.
—Shane Lasley
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