Hecla Receives Permit for 2026 Polaris Exploration Program in Nevada’s Historic Aurora Mining District

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 1, 2025--

Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Klondex Aurora Mine Inc., has received a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Decision Notice from the U.S. Forest Service (“USFS”) for the Polaris Exploration Project in Mineral County, Nevada, clearing the way for exploration activities to commence in 2026.

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The USFS Bridgeport Ranger District issued the approval on November 20, 2025, following a comprehensive environmental review that concluded the proposed exploration activities will not have significant environmental effects.

“This approval marks a significant milestone in advancing our exploration strategy in one of Nevada’s most prospective high-grade gold districts,” said Kurt Allen, Vice President of Exploration. “We are excited to begin our 2026 exploration program at Aurora, which produced some of the highest-grade gold and silver ore in Walker Lane during its historic operations. We appreciate the thorough review conducted by the USFS and the collaboration with local stakeholders throughout this process.”

ABOUT THE AURORA MINING DISTRICT

The Aurora Mining District is one of the highest-grade historic mining districts in Nevada’s Walker Lane, having produced 1.9 million ounces of gold and 20 million ounces of silver, with underground production averaging 2.24 ounces per ton gold. This exceptional grade demonstrates the district’s potential for additional high-grade discoveries within a well-mineralized hydrothermal system.

The project benefits from existing infrastructure, including a 600-ton-per-day mill on site, and significant private land holdings that reduce permitting requirements for any future discoveries. Over the past three years, Hecla geologists have focused on compiling historical data, consolidating land positions, and developing high-quality exploration targets.

2026 EXPLORATION PROGRAM

The planned exploration program includes testing multiple high-grade epithermal vein systems across various erosional levels (Figure 1):

There targets represent numerous underexplored vein systems with significant discovery potential based on district-scale structural and geochemical analysis.

“The Polaris Project represents an important opportunity to expand our understanding of the mineral potential in this region while upholding our commitment to responsible environmental stewardship,” Allen added. “We have assembled a highly prospective land package and developed targets that we believe offer excellent potential for high-grade gold and silver discoveries.”

Hecla’s land position includes substantial private parcels that provide a strong foundation for exploration activities and potential future development. The Company remains committed to operating safely, transparently, and in full compliance with all federal and state regulations.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Decision Notice and supporting environmental documents are available through the U.S. Forest Service website: Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest | Project Summary (#65353) | Forest Service

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements, Including 2025 Outlook

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections and other applicable laws, including Canadian securities laws. Words such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expects”, “intends”, “projects”, “believes”, “estimates”, “targets”, “anticipates” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may include, without limitation: (i) planned exploration at Aurora in 2026 and (ii) a 600-ton-per-day mill on site and significant private land holdings reduce permitting requirements for any future discoveries.

The material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information include that the Company’s plans for development and production will proceed as expected and will not require revision as a result of risks or uncertainties, whether known, unknown or unanticipated, to which the Company’s operations are subject. Estimates or expectations of future events or results are based upon certain assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect, which could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements. Such assumptions, include, but are not limited to: (i) there being no significant change to current geotechnical, metallurgical, hydrological and other physical conditions; (ii) permitting, development, operations and expansion of the Company’s projects being consistent with current expectations and mine plans; (iii) political/regulatory developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; (iv) the exchange rate for the USD/CAD being approximately consistent with current levels; (v) certain price assumptions for gold, silver, lead and zinc; (vi) prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; (vii) the accuracy of our current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; (viii) there being no significant changes to the availability of employees, vendors and equipment; (ix) the Company’s plans for development and production will proceed as expected and will not require revision as a result of risks or uncertainties, whether known, unknown or unanticipated; (x) counterparties performing their obligations under hedging instruments and put option contracts; (xi) sufficient workforce is available and trained to perform assigned tasks; (xii) weather patterns and rain/snowfall within normal seasonal ranges so as not to impact operations; (xiii) relations with interested parties, including First Nations and Native Americans, remain productive; (xiv) maintaining availability of water rights; (xv) factors do not arise that reduce available cash balances; and (xvi) there being no material increases in our current requirements to post or maintain reclamation and performance bonds or collateral related thereto. In addition, material risks that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: (i) gold, silver and other metals price volatility; (ii) operating risks; (iii) currency fluctuations; (iv) increased production costs and variances in ore grade or recovery rates from those assumed in mining plans; (v) community relations; and (vi) litigation, political, regulatory, labor and environmental risks. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors, see the Company's 2024 Form 10-K filed on February 13, 2025, and Form 10-Q filed on May 1, 2025, August 6, 2025 and November 5, 2025, for a more detailed discussion of factors that may impact expected future results. The Company undertakes no obligation and has no intention of updating forward-looking statements other than as may be required by law.

Qualified Person (QP)

Kurt D. Allen, MSc., CPG, VP-Exploration of Hecla Mining Company and Paul W. Jensen, MSc., CPG, Chief Geologist of Hecla Limited, serve as a Qualified Persons under S-K 1300 and NI 43-101 for Hecla’s mineral projects. Mr. Allen supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information concerning exploration activities for this news release.

Figure 1: Aurora plan view map showing 2026 exploration target areas.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the arrest of a man charged with placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties on Jan. 5, 2021, the warning from the Trump administration was clear: If you come to the nation's capital to attack citizens and institutions of democracy, you will be held accountable.

Yet Justice Department leaders who announced the arrest were silent about the violence that had taken place when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and clashed with police one day after those bombs were placed.

It was the latest example of the Trump's administration's efforts to rewrite the history of the riot, through pardons and the firings of lawyers who prosecuted the participants of the siege, and of the disconnect for a government that prides itself for cracking down on violent crime and supporting law enforcement but has papered over the brutality of the Jan. 6 attacks on police officers.

“The administration has ignored and attempted to whitewash the violence committed by rioters on Jan. 6 because they were the president's supporters. They were trying to install him a second time against the will of the voters in 2020,” said Michael Romano, who prosecuted the rioters before leaving the Justice Department this year. “And it feels like the effort to ignore that is purely transactional.”

The White House referred comment to the Justice Department, which referred comment to the FBI. The bureau did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press on Friday.

FBI Director Kash Patel, as a conservative podcast host during the Biden administration, had called the Jan. 6 rioters “political prisoners” and offered to represent them for free. But on Thursday, he said the arrest of the pipe bomb suspect, 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr., was in keeping with Trump's commitment to “secure our nation's capital.”

“When you attack American citizens, when you attack our institutions of legislation, when you attack the nation’s capital, you attack the very being of our way of life,” Patel said. “And this FBI and this Department of Justice stand here to tell you that we will always combat it.”

Patel's deputy, Dan Bongino, had suggested before joining the FBI that federal law enforcement had wasted time investigating Jan. 6 rioters and anti-abortion activists.

“These are threats to the United States?” he once said on a podcast. “Grandma is in the gulag for a trespassing charge on January 6th.”

Bongino speculated last year that the pipe bomb incident was an “inside job” that involved a “massive cover-up.” After joining the FBI, Bongino repeatedly described the investigation as a top priority that was receiving significant resources and attention.

“We were going to track this person to the end of the earth. There was no way he was getting away,” he said Thursday.

No public link has emerged between the pipe bombs and the riot, and Cole's arrest was a significant development in its own right given that the nearly 5-year investigation had confounded authorities, who are now are assembling a portrait of Cole.

People familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that among the statements Cole made to investigators is that he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which Trump has insisted was stolen from him in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. The people were not authorized to discuss ongoing investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

There was no widespread fraud in that election, which a range of election officials across the country, including Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in key states crucial to Biden’s victory have also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by the courts.

The tough-on-crime words heard during Thursday's announcement about Cole's arrest were at odds with the Republican administration's repeated efforts to play down the violence of Jan. 6, absolve those charged in the insurrection and target those who investigated and prosecuted the rioters.

Trump’s clemency action on his first day back in the White House in January applied to all 1,500-plus people charged with participating in the attack on the foundations of American democracy. That included defendants seen on camera violently attacking police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a crutch and a hockey stick. More than 100 police officers were injured, including some who have described being scared for their lives as they were dragged into the crowd and beaten.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department asked the FBI for the names of agents who participated in Jan. 6 investigations, a demand feared within the bureau for as a possible precursor to mass firings. In August, Patel fired Brian Driscoll, who as the FBI's acting director in the early days of the Trump administration resisted handing over those names.

Trump's administration, meanwhile, has fired or demoted numerous prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases, including more than two dozen lawyers who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the investigation but were moved into permanent roles after Trump won the 2024 election.

In October, two federal prosecutors were locked out of their government devices and told they were being put on leave after filing court papers that described those who attacked the Capitol as a “mob of rioters.” The Justice Department later submitted a new court filing that stripped mentions of the Jan. 6 riot.

One man whose case was dismissed because of Trump’s pardons was accused of hurling an explosive device and a large piece of wood at a group of officers who trying to defend an entrance to the Capitol. Some officers later said they had “believed they were going to die,” prosecutors wrote in court papers, and several reported suffering temporary hearing loss.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, and FBI Director Kash Patel stand during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - This image shows part of a "Seeking Information" notice released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding pipe bombs planted outside offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, on the eve of the attack on the Capitol. (FBI via AP, File)

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel look at each other during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)