Hecla Mining slides after Q4 loss, weak 2023 gold production outlook Guidance
Feb. 15, 2023 10:57 AM ET
Hecla Mining Company (HL)
Hecla Mining (NYSE:
HL) -10.3% in Wednesday's trading after reporting
Q4 GAAP earnings and revenues that missed expectations while releasing disappointing guidance for FY 2023 gold production.
Hecla (
HL) produced 14.2M oz of silver and 175.8K oz of gold in 2022, and said it expects to produce 16M-17.5M oz of silver and 160K-170K oz of gold this year.
For Q4, the miner produced 3.7M oz of silver, up from 3.2M oz in the year-earlier quarter, and 43,634 oz of gold, down from nearly 48K oz a year ago.
Free cash flow for the year was negative $59.5M, a drop of $170.8M from the previous year due to lower revenues, higher production costs, higher capital spend at Lucky Friday and Greens Creek, and investment in the Keno Hill development.
The company sees consolidated gold production declining in 2023 primarily due to the Casa Berardi mine in Quebec, as an increase in the underground cutoff grade will lower gold production and reduce lower margin material and lower contractor costs.
Meanwhile, consolidated silver production is expected to increase over the three years to reach 18.5M-20M oz by 2025.
Silver all-in sustaining costs in 2023 are expected to remain roughly flat from 2022 despite inflationary pressures.
"In 2022, we achieved our largest silver reserves and second highest silver production in our history, and expect to set new records in 2023 and 2024," President and CEO Phillips Baker Jr. said.