HECLA MINING CO/DE/

Current report

Item 1A. – Risk Factors of our 2025 Form 10-K set forth information relating to important risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or operating results. Except as set forth below, there have been no material changes to those risk factors. The risk factors below, which include a new risk factor relating to Keno Hill, should be read in conjunction with those risk factors.

Current report

Production at Keno Hill will decline beginning in the fourth quarter of 2026 and could be further curtailed or suspended until permit amendments are obtained and related infrastructure is built.

Current report

Keno Hill’s mill has recently operated near its permitted maximum annual average of 440 tons per day, but our current quartz mining license and water license do not provide the tailings storage, waste rock and water treatment capacity needed to sustain that rate. As a result, milled tons are expected to decline in the fourth quarter of 2026 to approximately 300 tons per day, and are expected to decline further beginning in January 2027 to levels significantly below third quarter 2026 throughput. We expect throughput to remain at reduced levels until amended licenses are obtained, which we currently estimate could occur by approximately mid-2029 following review by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board of a project proposal we intend to submit by year-end 2026, and until the related infrastructure is constructed. We expect this period to be one of lower revenue and higher costs at Keno Hill. Even at the reduced rate, our capacity to manage tailings, waste rock and production water may be even further constrained and may be exhausted if the next phase of our dry-stack tailings facility is not permitted and constructed during the 2029 construction season or if the license amendments are not received in 2029. The review and licensing process involves multiple sequential steps outside our control, including the Yukon Government’s consultation with the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (“FNNND”), which has indicated an interest in revisiting our Comprehensive Cooperation and Benefits Agreement, including its unresolved wealth-sharing provisions; any resolution of those provisions is likely to require ongoing payments to the FNNND. Delays at any step, restrictions on temporary waste rock stockpiling, or reduced power supply from Yukon Energy could require further curtailment or a halt to production. If permits or infrastructure are delayed, or if silver prices decline materially, we could place Keno Hill on care and maintenance and could be required to record an impairment of its long-lived assets, which could be material. See also the risk factors in Part I, Item 1A of our 2025 Form 10-K, “We are required to obtain governmental permits and other approvals in order to conduct mining operations,” “Certain of our mines and exploration properties are located on land that is or may become subject to, competing title claims and/or claims of cultural significance,” and“We may not realize all of the anticipated benefits from our acquisitions, including our 2022 acquisition of Alexco.”