Hecla Mining could face $30M in pollution cleanup costs, Montana says
Mar. 20, 2018 4:42 PM ET|About: Hecla Mining Co. (HL)|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor
Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) could be forced to pay more than $30M in pollution cleanup costs to the state of Montana, after the Montana Department of Environmental Quality found the company and its president in violation of the state's "bad actor" law that targets individuals and companies that abandon polluted sites.
HL's President and CEO, Phillips Baker, Jr., is a former executive for Pegasus Gold, which went bankrupt in 1998 and left the state with a massive cleanup bill from three Montana sites that polluted surrounding waterways when cyanide, arsenic and other contaminants leaked out of the mines.
HL says the company had no direct relation to Pegasus, but the law nevertheless could complicate its pursuit of two large silver and copper mines in the state that would be constructed beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness area.
