Hecla’s management of tailings follows international tailings standards and policies, while continually innovating to find feasible solutions.
Hecla strives to reduce waste generation at all stages of the mining process. This extends to tailings as well as both hazardous and non-hazardous waste. We adopted two strategies for excellence in tailings management:
Dry-Stack Method
Hecla was an early developer of the dry stack method of tailings management at our Greens Creek operation, and this method is now utilized at Keno Hill as well. In this method, tailings are filter-pressed to a low moisture content and then placed into a “dry stack” that does not dam or impound water. This minimizes the surface footprint of storing our tailings, lessening the impact on nearby wildlife habitat and significantly reducing the consequences of failure.
Reducing Waste and Surface Storage Needs—Tailings
We strive to maximize the use of tailings as backfill underground, so we have less to store on the surface. Our remaining surface tailings have increased stability, improved safety, and reduced surface disturbance. In 2025, Greens Creek reused 54% of tailings as backfill instead of going to the dry stack. At Keno Hill, we constructed a cemented tails backfill plant to reuse tailings as backfill instead of going to the dry stack tailings facility.
Hecla is studying the economic potential of recovering and re-processing critical minerals from mine tailings, Minerals in our tailings at Greens Creek include arsenic, barium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, copper, gallium, germanium, gold, lead, manganese, nickel, silver, vanadium, and zinc. Reprocessing tailings would also reduce needs for storage and reclamation.
In 2025, we generated 4,079 metric tonnes of waste. We disposed of approximately 2,335 metric tonnes of non-hazardous waste and recycled 1,743 metric tonnes (42.7%) that otherwise would been disposed of as waste.
