Hecla Mining Co (HL)

[loantech]

<More mines shutting down mean less gold and silver on the market>

That is very bullish for silver especially copper and zinc mines shutting down as silver is a by product of many of those mines in South America.

**Silver Series - Primary vs. By-Product Production
This graph shows that only 30% of silver production comes from primary production. The majority of silver production is a by-product from base metal mines. Base metal prices have plummeted dramatically in the last 6 months so we might expect to see this influence silver supplies in the near future.***


http://www.jimletourneau.com/2008/12/silver-series-primary-vs-by-product-production/

<They're too busy scrambling to cover the bills today.>

Quite true but look out above when this deleveraging winds down.

And HL is a very very recognized name with very safe mining locations.

I am down to the basics now having weeded out all the fluff in my portfolio. The only fly in the ointment for HL is their outstanding debt. Not sure how the stock would do long term if they sold 80,000,000 more shares to cover the debt but at that point they would own a 700 million dollar mine in Alaska and Lucky Friday which gets richer as they mine at depth. And no hedges just in case silver breaks away at some point above 25 per ounce maybe 50 once again.