UNSDGs | Hecla Mining

How Hecla is Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

In 2024, Hecla held an inaugural company-wide, tools-down Safety Day, with a pause of all operations to enable everyone to focus on their approaches to safety.
Hecla developed updates to the Safety and Health Policy to reflect our new Safety 365 values and associated commitments.
Hecla’s Lucky Friday mine had a very successful showing at the 2024 Central Mine Rescue Competition, taking first place overall as well as in the field competition, rope rescue competition, and team technician competition. The Lucky Friday team also came second in the first aid competition.

43% of Hecla’s Charitable Foundation and Contributions were spent towards education.
Hecla provided a range of support for students and schools, such as hosting mine tours, collecting and donating school supplies to the Juneau School District, and contributing $10,000 for the Juneau Symphony Strings Camp. We organize career fairs and other educational opportunities and established two high school internships for Indigenous students from Angoon.
Nevada employees volunteered for numerous organizations in 2024, including working in the Winnemucca Ministerial Association’s soup kitchen and attending the annual fundraising dinner for the Boys and Girls Club (Winnemucca chapter).

At Lucky Friday, Hecla engineers are creating a system to recycle water from tailings ponds to use within the mine. We made significant progress towards the goal of reducing site-wide discharge by 35% (from a 2022 baseline) by 2025, by recycling enough water on-site to meet the mine’s operational needs.
In 2024, Lucky Friday installed a chiller for the underground, allowing the team to reuse water and thus reduce water discharge.
At Casa Berardi, we have reduced water consumption by an estimated 20,000 cubic meters per year. This is due to reusing water from the processing facility water in the paste backfill plant.

In 2024, we achieved a 10.5% reduction in energy consumption company-wide compared to our 2019 baseline.
Hecla is continually looking for opportunities to improve our intake of renewable energy and reduce our intake of carbon-intensive energy sources, including by seeking opportunities to construct solar generation systems.

As part of our recruitment strategy, we have developed relationships with universities’ mining schools to engage with candidates for operational and technical roles. We also work with local universities to recruit candidates for positions in accounting, human resources, and information technology.
When seeking to fill open positions, we prioritize local hiring as part of our corporate responsibility and social obligation to the communities where we operate. As of December 31, 2024, we had a total of 1,817 employees. When excluding our camp locations, 79% of hiring was done locally in 2024, and 83% of our senior managers were local to their communities.
In 2024, Hecla contributed more than $233 million to our local communities through wages, bonuses, and severance.

In 2024, we achieved a 38% reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions and a 10.5% reduction in energy consumption company-wide compared to our 2019 baseline. Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions and energy consumption reductions were accomplished through operating efficiencies that lower the use of electricity, diesel fuel, gasoline, natural gas, and propane.
As part of our enterprise risk management processes, we incorporate climate-related risks and opportunities into our risk management and strategic planning processes aligned with the TCFD framework. We periodically conduct structured high-level risk assessments (HLRAs). Our expanded approach includes a Climate-Related Physical Risk Assessment, which was conducted in 2022 to identify and monitor potential exposure to material climate-related risks.

In 2024, Hecla secured 29 abandoned mine lands at our Aurora site with fencing, berms, and signage. This allows bats and other animals to still use the shafts as habitat while protecting humans and large wildlife.
In northwest Montana, Hecla owns approximately 8,600 acres of land, of which approximately 6,400 acres have been acquired with the goal of preserving the forest and associated watersheds as habitat for wildlife such as deer, elk, moose, and endangered species such as grizzly bears. Over the past decade, we have donated approximately $700,000 to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to support a Grizzly Bear Management Specialist.
Hecla maintains approximately $190 million in guaranteed outside bonds to ensure that closure and reclamation occur at all of our sites. We perform a structured review of company-wide assets and reclamation obligations on a quarterly basis to ensure appropriate plans and financial accruals are in place, and our Audit Committee provides a report on the review to our Board of Directors.