Shareholders Celebrate $4 Billion Gain in Market Value, in a Couple Weeks! And we’ll drink to that!
When we added Hecla Mining (HL) to the 2026 Watch List on March 22nd, it was trading at $17.00, 50% off its high from $34, achieved during the Gold market peak of late January. We’re up 23% in six months, it’s up 33% since reporting earnings.
We’re happy, shareholders are happy, everyone is happy.
*Drinks at 4:30 that is, East Coast happy hour, because that’s a tradition and it’s how we roll on a Thursday!
LIVE QUOTE
At the time we stated:
Timing is a ‘personal’ issue, related to short and long-term investor goals, but generally speaking (for long-term investors), the timing right now to build a precious metals model portfolio, in our opinion – is simply just perfect.
In fact, we’ve never seen a better setup for the long term. We’ve bounced from industry to industry over the past 50 years (going where the wind is blowing the strongest), and there are times when an entire sector goes cold. Which is more often than not, is a time to start shopping for bargains in the carnage, which is exactly what we are doing. For the record, we define dropping 50% as carnage and not a mere ‘profit-taking pullback.’ Hecla Mining (HL) for example has lost nearly $12 billion in market value.
We know there have been a lot of people waiting for a pull-back in the metals (like when Silver was at $120), which sometimes, unfortunately, never comes. Well, here it is. No excuses now. This is our chance. The fat lady has sung. If not now, when? We are on it. No beach parties this weekend, that just passed.
The whole group looks better now than when we first got excited about the prospects in 2019, as it first crossed $1,400, and we were mildly bullish. And better than when it first crossed $3,500, where we became wildly bullish.
1 Year Chart
BIGGER PICTURE
For years, the play on gold mining stocks was laughably predictable: nobody was actually reading the balance sheets. Investors treated gold equities as little more than leveraged proxies for the shiny metal itself. If spot gold ticked up, the stock surged; if gold took a dive, the stock crashed with it. Detailed company fundamentals—free cash flow, operational efficiency, debt ratios—were routinely ignored in favor of a lazy, high-beta bet on bullion.
Hecla Mining, however, just blew that simplistic strategy wide open. Since dropping its quarterly numbers on August 4th, the stock has skyrocketed an eye-popping 33%, minting roughly $4 billion in market value for thrilled shareholders. While the broader precious metals market was oscillating, Hecla delivered performance metrics so strong that Wall Street was forced to stop looking at the spot price and actually read the financial statements.
The driver behind this historic run comes down to absurdly strong core metrics. Hecla reported an incredible 61% year-over-year surge in quarterly cash flow, reaching $175 million. Combined with a fortress-like balance sheet featuring $483 million in cash on hand—the highest cash reserve in the company’s history—Hecla proved that stellar execution can break the traditional gold-proxy mold and force the market to price in fundamental excellence.
The call the cash a “Fortress in the Making.”
Of course we are not predicting from here out investors will be looking at fundamentals as a reason to buy or sell, versus the price of Gold itself. But we are willing to bet when Gold hits $10,000, the fundamentals will blow investors away as they can’t be ignored.
Hecla Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results
Hecla Mining Company Earnings Call Transcript: Q2 2026 (We would urge you to read this, industry wise educational)
We’ll combine the Round I in a report, with the more recent Round II with charts and all that this weekend.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements, Including 2026 Outlook
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections and other applicable laws, including Canadian securities laws. Words such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expects”, “intends”, “projects”, “believes”, “estimates”, “targets”, “anticipates” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements.
Such forward-looking statements may include, without limitation: (i) the Company’s organic project pipeline has potential for meaningful value creation, with the potential to meaningfully expanding precious metal output, cash flows and net asset value over time, while avoiding many of the exploration and development risks inherent in greenfield projects; (ii) at Greens Creek, (a) the expansion of its tailings facility, when completed, is expected to provide tailings storage capacity through 2045; and (b) the potential new pyrite concentrate circuit (1) could create incremental annual production of approximately 1.0 to 1.2 million ounces of silver and 10,000 to 15,000 ounces of gold from material that currently reports to tailings, once fully ramped up, (2) has a potential robust return on capital meeting Company thresholds, while potentially also reducing the rate of tailings deposited into the tailing storage facility, which would be expected to lower future tailings-related capital investment, (3) has projected favorable benefit-to-cost ratio and low technical risk, and is well suited to an accelerated engineering and execution path, and (4) is targeted for first production between the fourth quarter of 2027 and the first half of 2028, with a ramp-up period of approximately one year required to reach full capacity; (c) the tailings reprocessing project (1) offers potential organic value creation, (2) has Phase 3 testing scheduled for completion in August 2026, which is a key milestone that should help shape next steps, with the potential to advance to a pilot plant test in Phase 4, (3) is expected to advance through a prefeasibility study before any decision to execute if the tests yield positive results, (4) represents a potentially low capital intensity path for Hecla to achieve initial cash flows, and (5) could decrease the space needed for tailings storage and help lower the mine’s long-term reclamation liability. (iii) the Midas restart project has the potential to reduce the capital required to restart the operation through its fully permitted infrastructure, with Midas representing a potential hub-and-spoke operating model where ore sources could come from multiple regional sources fed into the 1,200 tpd mill; (iv) the surface cooling project at Lucky Friday is expected to be completed by end of third quarter 2026; (v) capital investment is expected to ramp up in the third quarter with the warmer construction months and remain elevated in the fourth quarter as numerous projects are advanced across the portfolio; (vi) Company-wide and mine-specific estimated spending on capital, exploration and predevelopment for 2026; (vii) Company-wide and mine-specific estimated silver and gold production for 2026; and (ix) metals prices and foreign exchange rate assumptions.
The material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information include that the Company’s plans for development and production will proceed as expected and will not require revision as a result of risks or uncertainties, whether known, unknown or unanticipated, to which the Company’s operations are subject. Estimates or expectations of future events or results are based upon certain assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect, which could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements. Such assumptions, include, but are not limited to: (i) there being no significant change to current geotechnical, metallurgical, hydrological and other physical conditions; (ii) permitting, development, operations and expansion of the Company’s projects being consistent with current expectations and mine plans; (iii) political/regulatory developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; (iv) the exchange rate for the USD/CAD being approximately consistent with current levels; (v) certain price assumptions for gold, silver, lead and zinc; (vi) prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; (vii) the accuracy of our current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; (viii) there being no significant changes to the availability of employees, vendors and equipment; (ix) the Company’s plans for development and production will proceed as expected and will not require revision as a result of risks or uncertainties, whether known, unknown or unanticipated; (x) counterparties performing their obligations under hedging instruments and put option contracts; (xi) sufficient workforce is available and trained to perform assigned tasks; (xii) weather patterns and rain/snowfall within normal seasonal ranges so as not to impact operations; (xiii) relations with interested parties, including First Nations and Native Americans, remain productive; (xiv) maintaining availability of water rights; (xv) factors do not arise that reduce available cash balances; and (xvi) there being no material increases in our current requirements to post or maintain reclamation and performance bonds or collateral related thereto. In addition, material risks that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: (i) gold, silver and other metals price volatility; (ii) operating risks; (iii) currency fluctuations; (iv) increased production costs and variances in ore grade or recovery rates from those assumed in mining plans; (v) community relations; and (vi) litigation, political, regulatory, labor and environmental risks. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that may impact expected future results, see the Company’s 2025 Form 10-K filed on February 17, 2026 and Form 10-Q expected to be filed on August 4, 2026. The Company undertakes no obligation and has no intention of updating forward-looking statements other than as may be required by law.
Cautionary Statements to Investors on Reserves and Resources
This news release uses the terms “mineral resources”, “measured mineral resources”, “indicated mineral resources” and “inferred mineral resources.” Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. You should not assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. Further, inferred mineral resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically, and an inferred mineral resource may not be considered when assessing the economic viability of a mining project, and may not be converted to a mineral reserve. The Company reports reserves and resources under the SEC’s mining disclosure rules (“S-K 1300”) and Canada’s National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”) because the Company is a “reporting issuer” under Canadian securities laws. Unless otherwise indicated, all resource and reserve estimates contained in this press release have been prepared in accordance with S-K 1300 as well as NI 43-101.
