Chart courtesy of Stockcharts

On the 2nd June 2009 Hecla Mining Company (HL) announced that they had sold a number of shares and warrants in order to pay down debt as follows:

Under the terms of the offering, Hecla will sell approximately 17.4 million shares of common stock and Series 4 warrants to purchase approximately 12.2 million shares of common stock at a price of $3.45 per unit. The Series 4 warrants will have an exercise price of $3.68 per share and are exercisable for 181 days beginning 181 days after closing. Net proceeds from the share issuance will be used to repay a portion of the term debt.

Hecla Mining Company President and Chief Executive Officer Phillips S. Baker, Jr., said, “This transaction reduces term debt to about $55 million which significantly lowers borrowing costs. With this level of debt and an amortization schedule that does not begin until March 2010, our risks are reduced and the flexibility to grow reserves and production is improving.”

From the chart on Google Finance we can see that the share price was sitting at $3.85 when the news hit the wires, within minutes the share price had dropped to $3.37, which tells us that the market was not too impressed as the volume of shares traded was double a normal days turnover.

The other negative is that silver has also taken a tumble and backed off about a dollar so Hecla has been hit with a double whammy. Volatility will no doubt continue so hang on in there the best is still to come despite the short term
oscillations.

Hecla Mining Company trades on the NYSE under the symbol of HL and has a market capitalization of $677.74 with 217.92 million shares outstanding and closed yesterday at $3.11.

Have a sparkling week.

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