Waste & Tailings Management

Hecla’s management of tailings follows international tailings standards and policies, while continually innovating to find feasible solutions.

We also strive to reduce waste output on all fronts specific to each operation, and we continuously explore the environmentally responsible use of resources, products, and materials. All sites have active programs for reuse, recycling, and recovery of hazardous and non-hazardous materials such as scrap metal, batteries, antifreeze, used oil, and paints/solvents.

Tailings Management

Hecla’s formalized Tailings Stewardship Program was launched in 2014 and is designed to ensure all our operations implement best practices and risk-based approaches to manage mining waste. Comprehensive procedures and protocols are in place that focus on the safe and environmentally responsible design, construction, operation, and closure of our tailings storage facilities.

Benchmark Against Industry-Leading
Frameworks

The Hecla Tailings Management Standard is benchmarked against industry leading tailings management frameworks of the Canadian Dam Association, Canada’s Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM), and the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management. These frameworks include robust site characterization, engineering and design requirements, development and communication of emergency response plans, and periodic third-party review. At least annually, our company-wide tailings management standard is subject to either an internal or third-party audit for quality assurance.

Early Adopter of the Dry-Stack Method

Hecla was an early adopter of the dry stack method of tailings management at our Greens Creek operation and is also used at our Keno Hill site. In this method, tailings are filtered to a low moisture content and then trucked and placed into a “dry stack” that does not dam or impound water. This method minimizes the tailings surface footprint, lessening the impact on nearby wildlife habitat, while also eliminating the storage of free-standing water with tailings and significantly reducing the possibility of failures and any potential consequences.

Waste Management

In 2023, we generated approximately 2,116 metric tonnes of non-hazardous and hazardous waste and recycled 1,219 metric tonnes (58%) which otherwise would have been disposed of as waste.

Tailings Management is a Top Priority

In 2023, we appointed our first Corporate Tailings Manager to centralize and coordinate Hecla’s governance and oversight of tailings management standards and implement them in a coherent and consistent way at each operation.
We also seek to reuse a high percentage of tailings as underground backfill rather than store them on the surface, which increases stability, improves safety, and reduces surface storage requirements.
At our San Sebastian operation in Mexico, we used the waste rock to backfill the pits.

Waste & Tailings Management

Tailings Management

Benchmark Against Industry-Leading
Frameworks

Early Adopter of the Dry-Stack Method

Waste Management

Tailings Management is a Top Priority

Investors: 800.432.5291

Get the Latest

Investor Kit

We’re Hecla

Waste & Tailings Management

Tailings Management

Benchmark Against Industry-Leading Frameworks

Early Adopter of the Dry-Stack Method

Waste Management

Tailings Management is a Top Priority

Investors: 800.432.5291

Get the Latest

Investor Kit

We’re Hecla

Benchmark Against Industry-Leading
Frameworks