Hecla Mining Co (HL)

[Montanore]

Good HL post from another board.

A lot of people don't realize that HL was in technical default under their Bridge Loan agreement when they did not make the full payment in Sept. Scotia did not take action on the default/extension to Feb 09 until a review was conducted of a revised HL mining plan. A lot of people bought HL when it got down to $3.50 or so thinking it had fallen enough & then realized that HL was in fact in violation of their Bridge Loan docs & the stock then collapased to $1. The press release last week that the revised mining plan was approved by Scotia, took them out of technical default and granted an extension until FEB 09 to make the last $40MM payment they did not make in Sept due to their inability to sell more than roughly 31MM shares sold in Sept & left them the $40MM gap in their liquidity (they were trying to sell more shares to make full payment in Sept of the Bridge Loan, but the market would not hold up). Now that they are out of technical default and have the funds to not only make the Feb 09 payment, but handle the amortization on the $120MM term loan over the next three years , this stock should climb back to the mid-3s rather quickly - esp if silver holds up.