Thank you for joining us, welcome to Q1 2026 Hecla Mining Company Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Mike Parkin, Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Hillary. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Hecla Mining Company's first quarter 2026 results conference call. I am Mike Parkin, Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations. Our earnings release that was issued yesterday along with today's presentation are both available on our website. On the call today with us is Robert L. Krcmarov, President and Chief Executive Officer; Russell D. Lawlar, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Carlos Aguiar, Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer; Kurt D. Allen, Vice President, Exploration; Matthew Blattman, Vice President, Technical Services; as well as other members of our management team. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will also be available for questions. Turning to slide two, cautionary statements. Any forward-looking statements made today by the management team come under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and involve risks as shown on slide two, in our earnings release, and in our 10-Q filing with the SEC. These and other risks could cause results to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Non-GAAP measures cited in this call and related slides are reconciled in both the slides and the news release. We have also published our 2025 sustainability report earlier this week, which is available on our website. Please note, as we discuss financial figures and projections throughout this presentation and in the earnings release we are referring to our continuing operations unless otherwise noted. This reflects the sale of the Casa Berardi operation that closed at the end of March. I will now pass the call over to Robert. Thank you, and good morning, everyone.

Before I get into the quarter, I want to take a moment to acknowledge where we stand as a company now because I think the context matters. Eighteen months ago when I joined Hecla Mining Company, this company carried nearly $550 million of net debt. Today, we carry no long-term debt, none. That transformation and what it unlocks for shareholders is really what this call is about. So turning to slide three. Hecla Mining Company enters 2026 in the strongest financial and strategic position in the company's recent history. As North America's premium silver producer, we have six core attributes that really distinguish us from our peer group: a silver legacy stretching back to 1891; operations exclusively in the United States and Canada; peer-leading silver exposure in both revenue and reserves; a reserve life roughly double that of our peer group; a deep and advancing project pipeline; and a cost structure that positions us as the lowest cost producer in our peer group. These will help to support our premium valuation and make us a premier destination for silver investors. Turning to slide four. The Casa Berardi sale in March was a deliberate, well-timed decision. We harvested the cash flows to that point, secured substantial value including a 9.9% equity stake in Orezone and the deferred cash consideration, and we freed ourselves to do what we should be doing: directing our capital and management's attention towards our silver growth platform. And then on April 9, about four weeks ago, we redeemed our final $263 million of senior notes. So Hecla Mining Company is now free of long-term debt, for the first time in many years. We have a fully undrawn $225 million revolving credit facility and a cash balance that is building on strong operating performance in the silver market. What excites me is what comes next. Across the portfolio, from the Greens Creek pyrite concentrate circuit and tailings reprocessing project to the Midas restart opportunity in Nevada, we have a set of organic value creation opportunities that are compelling because of what they share in common. Each is screening to have lower capital intensity than a conventional mine development, though that assessment remains subject to ongoing evaluation, particularly for the early stage projects. That means the potential for robust returns on invested capital and real per share value creation. We believe in this value, and we are working hard to unlock it. Beyond these near to medium-term opportunities, I am very excited about our 2026 exploration program, representing a near doubling of exploration investment from 2025, which could be the thing that reshapes the long-term picture of this company. Turning to slide five. The numbers this quarter speak for themselves, and I am proud of what this team has delivered. Revenue from continuing operations exceeded $410 million, up 13% from the prior quarter and double what we generated in Q1 2025. Record adjusted EBITDA of $265 million and record consolidated free cash flow of $144 million with every single mine free cash flow positive, every one. We produced 3.9 million ounces of silver, roughly 3% more than the prior quarter, cash costs at nearly negative $3 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs below $10 per ounce. At today's silver prices, those are exceptional margins. The quality of those margins reflects how the transformation of this business is showing up in the numbers. Turning to slide six. Slide six puts our production outlook in perspective. We are guiding to 15.1 million to 16.5 million ounces of silver in 2026, a strong operational baseline. What I want you to see is the trajectory beyond that. Our project pipeline supports a potential pathway to 20-plus million ounces annually, and that is driven by Keno Hill's gradual ramp to 440 tonnes per day and the potential restart of Midas in Nevada. And beyond that, a potential Keno Hill expansion and possibly more growth from the Aurora and other mines in Nevada as well as the Libby project in Montana. But before we get to Midas, there are two near-term opportunities associated with our flagship Greens Creek mine in Alaska that I am particularly excited about. I want to make sure that they get the proper airtime today. So Matthew Blattman, our Vice President, Technical Services, will give an overview on those, and then give you an update on the Midas restart project. Matthew, over to you. Thanks.

Turning to slide seven. First, I will discuss the Greens Creek pyrite concentrate circuit. We are evaluating the feasibility and economic potential of developing a pyrite concentrate circuit at the Greens Creek mill. If successful, this project would generate an additional marketable concentrate stream, boosting overall silver and gold recoveries from the mill while potentially reducing the mine's reclamation liability significantly. There is also additional upside through potential reserve expansion, as the inclusion of lower-grade silver in our sulfide blocks could grow the underground mineral reserves. The project is currently estimated to be low in capital intensity and could provide cash flow in about two years. We expect to provide another market update on this project in late 2026 or early 2027. Second, the Greens Creek tailings reprocessing project. We introduced this project to the market during our investor day this past January in New York. I want to be clear about where this sits today. We are still in the evaluation stage. We will make a development decision once the test work is done. What makes this project compelling is what is sitting in the dry stack facility at the site: an estimated 10.4 million tons containing an estimated 50 million ounces of silver and nearly 600,000 ounces of gold, along with several other critical minerals. At year-end 2025 prices, the gross metal value of what is in the facility was approximately $6.8 billion. I stress gross value because that is before recovery rates, processing costs, and the capital required to actually extract the metal. We have a third-party partner advancing phase-three metallurgical test work which we expect to complete around mid-2026. That test work, along with confirming a suitable processing facility, is what will determine whether and how we move forward with this work. Early results have been encouraging, and the indications are that this does not require the kind of capital you would need to build a new mine from scratch. We will have more to say on that once the test work is in hand. On top of the potential cash flow, reprocessing the tailings has the added benefit of potentially reducing the mine's long-term reclamation liability, turning what is currently a liability into a source of value. Finally, the Midas restart project in Nevada. As you know, Nevada is considered one of the best jurisdictions in the world for mining, and we have three highly compelling projects in the state that we are planning to advance this year through exploration and other work. Midas, the most advanced of the three, is a historically high-grade silver and gold operation we acquired as part of the Klondex transaction. It has fully permitted infrastructure that meaningfully reduces the capital required to bring the asset into a cash flow state. We are evaluating a hub-and-spoke operating model, where ore sources from multiple regional properties, including the nearby Hollister project, are transported to and processed through the existing 1,200-ton-per-day permitted mill. The site also has an adjacent permitted tailings facility with approximately 15 years of storage capacity. We have allocated $16 million to Nevada exploration in 2026, more than three times last year's investment. Kurt D. Allen will give you an update on the latest drilling results in a moment. Our goal is to establish a resource big enough to warrant investment and a restart. Let me be clear. With the grades we are hitting, the target is well below a million ounces of gold equivalent to get started. This targeted resource is expected to form the basis for a restart PEA. Now I will turn the call over to Carlos for the operations review.

Thank you. Before I walk through the mines, I should mention that we have reiterated our production and cost guidance for the year. You can find that summary on slide 22. Turning to slide nine, starting with Greens Creek. In the first quarter, the mine produced 2.2 million ounces of silver and 13,000 ounces of gold. Total cost of sales came in at $82 million, with cash costs of nearly negative $12 per ounce and AISC of negative $8.39 per ounce, both after by-product credits. Those are best-in-class numbers, and they reflect the strong by-product revenue we are getting from gold, zinc, and lead. Cash flow from operations was $131 million and free cash flow was $126 million, a very strong quarter. One thing we are highlighting operationally: Greens Creek set a record for underground backfill placement this quarter, placing nearly 164,000 tons, which is 16% above the 2025 quarterly average. That is a meaningful achievement because it gives us more operational flexibility and better ground stability as we move through the rest of the year. Turning to slide 10. Lucky Friday produced 1.2 million ounces of silver in Q1. Total cost of sales was $49 million. Cash costs were $12.07 per ounce and AISC was $23.78 per ounce, both after by-product credits. Free cash flow was $49 million. On the operating side, truck haulage was up 10% over the prior quarter, although that was partially offset by an 11% decline in the mill grade. That is a fairly typical outcome given the grade variability you naturally see at Lucky Friday, and we do expect average silver grade to improve in the second quarter. On the surface cooling project, construction is 81% complete, and we are on track to finish by mid-year. This is an important long-term investment designed to expand cooling capacity over the mine's roughly 15-year reserve life so we can continue mining safely and productively at depth. Turning to slide 11. At Keno Hill, we produced nearly half a million ounces of silver in Q1, and free cash flow was $16.3 million. I want to point out that this marks four consecutive quarters of positive free cash flow at Keno Hill, demonstrating profitability at current throughput rates and silver price. Production in Q1 was impacted by two things: reduced power supply from Yukon Energy Corporation due to the extreme cold weather that carried over from Q4, and lower silver grades as we mined through a lower-grade zone of the Bermingham deposit. The good news is both of those headwinds are behind us. We expect mill rates to improve in Q2 as we mine into higher-grade areas, and the power constraints have been resolved. With that, I will hand it over to Russell for the finance update.

Thank you, Carlos. As we turn to slide 13, let me take you through our financial results. As Mike noted in the cautionary statements, what I am about to discuss is based on results from our continuing operations, meaning that the impact from our sold asset, Casa Berardi, is excluded from these figures. The first quarter was record-setting for a number of financial metrics. Revenue from continuing operations was more than $410 million, up 13% over the prior quarter and double the level from the first quarter of last year, reflecting continued operational execution and significantly higher realized silver and gold prices. As you can see on slide 13, 73% of our revenues came from silver, and all of that revenue came from either the United States or Canada. This fundamentally sets Hecla Mining Company apart from peers in both categories and provides significant value to our shareholders. What is more important, though, is the return on these revenues. As you can see from the graphs on the bottom of the slide, we realized a margin of 90% of the realized silver price during the quarter, which is truly phenomenal. This margin translated to substantial free cash flow from all our mines, which as expected was led by Greens Creek at nearly $126 million for the quarter. However, Lucky Friday was also impressive at almost $50 million, while Keno Hill generated $15 million even though it is still in the ramp-up stage. I will speak more about how we will allocate this capital in a couple of slides. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $588 million in cash and total debt of $266 million, resulting in a net cash position of $321 million. This is a significant strategic inflection point and a significant milestone. The chart on this slide in the upper right-hand corner illustrates just how dramatically this picture has improved in a fairly short period of time. As Robert mentioned, it is something that materially de-risks this company and adds substantial shareholder value. After quarter-end, we redeemed our remaining $63 million of senior notes, leaving Hecla Mining Company with no long-term debt for the first time in many years. We now carry a fully undrawn $225 million revolving credit facility with a $75 million accordion, representing the strongest balance sheet in the company's recent history. Turning to slide 14. I would like to turn our attention to what the entire suite of assets can do over time at different price decks. The chart you see on the slide has been updated for Q1 results and illustrates projected 2026 consolidated free cash flow across a range of silver and gold prices. At $100/oz silver and $5,500/oz gold, we project over $900 million of consolidated free cash flow for the full year. At price assumptions of about where we are today, $75 silver and $4,500 gold, we project over $700 million. This incredible cash generation capability provides substantial flexibility and strategic alternatives we will discuss on the next slide. Our capital allocation framework on slide 15 reflects a disciplined, priority-ordered approach. Safety and environmental excellence comes first. It is the foundation of our license to operate. Investment in these priorities is nonnegotiable. As we move to investing in sustaining and growth capex where we see target returns in the 10% to 15% range, these investments are the lifeblood of our company and provide future value for further investment. We will hear from Kurt in a minute on exploration. However, our potential to add shareholder value through the drill bit is exceptional. We have increased our investment this year as we de-risked our balance sheet, freed up cash flows, and would expect, with success, the potential to continue to increase these investments—investments in the future. I discussed the balance sheet strength and deleveraging and the value that this brings to our investors on the previous slide. However, we will continue to add cash to our balance sheet while maintaining high-quality investments in our business. Strategic investments are evaluated on a return on invested capital and per share accretion basis, but do not come around often, and thus, we need to maintain a strong balance sheet to be able to make these investments when those opportunities arise. Additionally, considering our best-in-class mines with long lives, low costs, in the best jurisdictions, we do not feel rushed to make any strategic investments. We will be in a position to do so when the time comes. And finally, shareholder returns round out the framework. With a debt-free balance sheet and record free cash flow, we are focused on securing a cash balance capable of funding our project pipeline and surfacing value for our shareholders. And as we do so, we will begin to consider capital return to our shareholders. We currently have a share repurchase plan which has been board-approved for 20 million shares. I want to put that in context for a moment because I think it speaks to something that distinguishes Hecla Mining Company from our peer group. Our peers have pursued growth aggressively through M&A over the past five years—deals that diluted their shareholders by more than 50% in some cases. Hecla Mining Company's share count has grown at a fraction of that rate, and the result on every per share metric that matters—silver production, reserves, revenue—we rank first among our peers. We are the only silver producer in our peer group to have grown silver production per share over that period. That is the discipline we intend to carry forward. So as we accumulate cash, and if we see dislocation in our value versus the underlying fundamentals, we will not hesitate to deploy capital through buybacks, as long as it meets our return on capital criteria. I will now turn the call over to Kurt for the exploration update.

Thank you, Russell. Turning to slide 17. 2026 marks the transformational year for Hecla Mining Company's exploration program. We are investing $55 million in exploration and pre-development, which is an all-time record. We structured the programs across three priority areas, and I expect more and more activity across a number of sites as we move into the warmer months. At our producing assets, we are aiming to more than replace reserve depletion, and I am very excited about our Nevada growth projects, with drilling ongoing at Midas, starting up at Hollister in June, and at Aurora in July. The Aurora gold and silver project in western Nevada really has me most excited. It is earlier stage than Midas, but arguably carries the greatest long-term discovery potential. With historic grades averaging over two ounces per ton gold equivalent, and seven drill-ready targets now defined across the large land package, Aurora has the hallmarks of a district that has been underexplored rather than exhausted. Critically, Aurora has its own 600-ton-per-day permitted mill on-site, which means that if exploration delivers a compelling resource, the capital threshold to production is materially lower than a blank-sheet development. While I have been to Aurora multiple times, Robert has recently visited the project, and we are both very eager to see our initial drill targets tested. Turning to slide 18. Our drilling on the Center Offset Vein at Midas continues to build our understanding of this high-grade gold and silver system. Drill hole DMC-476 returned 0.21 oz/ton gold and 1.6 oz/ton silver over 2.3 feet, extending the known vertical extent of narrow high-grade mineralization along the Center Offset structure to more than 500 feet. We have now defined the strike length of this structure over 1,350 feet, and drilling will continue to step out to the southeast, where the structure remains open, as well as to the northwest. Two additional holes also intercepted parallel high-grade structures, reinforcing the prospectivity of this area. We will be providing regular Nevada exploration updates throughout 2026. I will now turn the call back to Robert for closing remarks.

Thank you, Kurt. Let me start with the market, because it really sets the stage for everything else. Recently, the World Silver Survey was released, and it confirmed 2025 as the fifth consecutive year of supply deficit, with cumulative stock drawdowns now exceeding 700 million ounces since 2021. That is the kind of structural tightness that does not resolve overnight, and we are not seeing new mine supply coming online in any meaningful manner over the medium term. Prices have been volatile year to date—that is the nature of this market. The gold-to-silver ratio sits around 65 to 1 today, well above the trough that we saw in the last silver bull market, and history tells us that ratio compresses as silver outperforms. We do not know exactly when that is going to happen, but what I do know is that Hecla Mining Company—debt free, with record free cash flow, and the best silver exposure in the sector—is a really compelling way to be positioned for when it actually does. The six attributes on this slide—legacy, jurisdiction, silver focus, reserve life, project pipeline, cost structure—they are not just a list. They are the result of deliberate choices made by this team over the past eighteen months. I believe they represent a differentiated investment case that the market will increasingly recognize: debt free, record free cash flow, clear organic growth pathway at low capital intensity. We are just getting started, and I look forward to keeping you updated throughout the year. We will now open the call for questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Heiko Felix Ihle from Wainwright. Heiko, your line is now open.

Hey. Good morning, Robert and team. How are you?

Good morning, Heiko. We are well.

Given the current commodity price environment, are there any longer-term capital projects that you are now more inclined to undertake at any of your currently operational sites, say in 2027 and beyond? You have mentioned a bit about the pyrite concentrate circuits and the tailings reprocessing project, but are there other things that maybe are not yet built into analyst models on a three-year plan, maybe?

Thanks for the question, Heiko. Not really. We have basically highlighted the projects that we are focused on in the next several years. Some of them are obviously shorter term, like the pyrite concentrate project, which was discussed. That is a very near-term opportunity, perhaps coming on in the next couple of years. Beyond that, nothing really longer term unless we have spectacular success at Aurora.

Thank you very much for your question. Your next question comes from the line of Wayne Lam from TD. Your line is now open.

Hey. Thanks. Morning, guys. Maybe just curious—at Keno Hill, can you remind us what the permits are that are outstanding there that are limiting you from ramping up throughput? And if I recall, was that just on the back-end capacity with the dry stack tailings? And just wondering, with the potential resolution of the Victoria Gold sales process recently announced, do you view that as maybe providing some visibility to permitting that would allow you to ramp up the mining rates there?

Thanks for your question, Wayne. On Victoria Gold, it does not really affect us other than at some point, when they are ready, they are going to be competing for a little bit of permitting bandwidth. But I do not expect anything is going to happen there in a hurry. Some of the outstanding issues there—the leakage that is still happening that needs to be resolved; a robust relationship like the one we have with the First Nation in Na-Cho Nyäk Dun that we have built and maintained—that needs to be established, all that credibility. So I cannot see that really affecting us in the short term. On the permits question, I have Matthew Blattman, our VP working on permitting. I am going to defer to him because he has been very heavily involved with it and his team. Matthew.

Thanks, Robert. Keno Hill's permitting path involves two processes. First, we have to submit a project proposal to YESAB, which is the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board. We expect to do that by year-end, then YESAB takes about twelve months to complete its review. After which we will submit two permit applications: the QML, which supports the mining license, and a water license amendment. Those amendments are really about removing some of the long-term constraints. Those constraints include constraints on waste rock, on tailings, and on water treatment as well as some other things like power and camp space. Our current estimate is that the amended permits could be received sometime around mid-2029, although, of course, there is variability around permitting. In the short term, between now and the time we receive those permits, there are a few constraints that continue to hold Keno Hill back. In the near term, we need approvals on our Phase Two West tailings from the regulators, which would allow us to expand the Phase Two tailings. Then after that, waste rock potentially becomes a limitation under both the QML and the water license. Receiving these long-term permits in mid-2029 is critical to our long-term success. We are running up against waste production limits and storage capacities in the near term, but we are actively engaged with the regulators to get some short-term relief until we receive those permit amendments.

Okay. Thanks. So I guess you had previously outlined a very gradual phase ramp up there. So I guess there is no potential to kind of fast track the ramp up of development on, say, Bermingham or Flame & Moth or some of those infrastructure items so that when you get the permits, you would be in position to quickly accelerate to the 440-permitted rate or even 600 imminently?

The 440 rate is going to be a gradual ramp up. Again, it is a sequence of permits. In the meantime, we need to manage the water. The more development you do, the more water you expose and the more water you need to treat. All these things are tied in. I cannot see that there is really a way to meaningfully accelerate this project. I would say there are some risks with permitting, but I would think of any potential curtailment as really a bridge problem—it is not an asset problem. The reserves do not change. Obviously, if there is a delay, that has time value of money impact on IRR, but we have a 16-year reserve life. We have very, very strong economics even at $30 silver. That does not go away. Our focus again is on that permitting work that keeps us running. And I would note what we talked about earlier in the call—$15.3 million in free cash flow at Keno Hill in Q1—and that is the trajectory that we are protecting. On the 600 tonnes per day and beyond, that is really future; that is going to require a whole new wave of capital investment and additional permitting. We are not focused on that. We are really focused on the here and now.

Okay. Understood. Thanks. And then maybe just with the high-yield notes paid down—obviously the balance sheet is in pretty great shape. In a very different market, you guys had previously rolled back the silver-linked dividend component. But in the context of your peers now increasing capital returns and linking those returns to cash flows, is that something that we could see sometime soon with a similarly linked component given the cash generation projected ahead?

Thanks, Wayne. I can take that. Certainly, in our prepared remarks, I mentioned that we are looking at capital returns. But we do believe that investment in our business brings better returns than it does in terms of shareholder returns. However, we do have a strong balance sheet, like you said, and we have deployed significant cash to debt redemption as compared to, if you look at our peers, many of our peers have refinanced or kept the debt on their balance sheet. So we have a little bit of a different strategy there to try to return long-term shareholder value that way. But we will be discussing with our board how and what our return on capital strategy should be. I would say stay tuned to that. We will continue to discuss that with the market as time goes along. But we want to make sure that we adequately fund all of the growth opportunities that we have internally. That is really where the value is created in this business.

Thank you for your time. Your next question comes from the line of Cosmos Chiu from CIBC. Your line is now open.

Hi. Thanks, Robert and team. Maybe my first question is a follow-up. In the MD&A, you mentioned that the 440 tonnes per day at Keno Hill is a medium-term target. But what is medium term? It sounds like you might need the permits. So is medium term 2029—you are not going to be able to hit the 440 tonnes per day until you get those permits sometime in 2029. Am I reading that correctly?

Yes. As Matthew pointed to, there are a couple of key permits that we really need to get by 2029. Until we get those, it remains a challenge between now and the time we get our permit amendments. That really unlocks the value. We are expecting that to be mid-2029.

Understood. And then maybe at Greens Creek, and elsewhere as well, I saw that there was a bit of inventory buildup. There was inventory buildup last quarter. I think you are working through it. So, for example, silver and zinc is now kind of—sales equating to production—but precious metals, you are working it through, but it is still not completely worked through. Lucky Friday sales were lower than production in Q1. So holistically, what is causing the inventory buildup? When do you think you can work through some of that through sales in subsequent quarters, and how long is that going to take?

Thanks, Cosmos. I will take that. In terms of inventory and accounts receivable, keep in mind that at Greens Creek we have our own deepwater port that we control. That is actually a huge strategic asset to us. But what that means is our shipments go out generally once a month, and they are very lumpy. So depending on when the ship leaves the port, you may have inventory that is sitting at the port, or you may have AR that is sitting in your accounts receivable. We do have opportunities to advance the receipt of accounts receivable, but when we take a look at it, especially with the balance sheet that we have, it is really accretive to our investors for us just to wait and get those funds in the normal course of business. So that is what you have seen probably more in the past year than previously—we are making those decisions with a longer-term view because of the lack of debt and less leverage. I would suggest it is really a timing difference, and quarter to quarter it is going to be challenging to determine exactly when those ships will leave and when the AR might be collected. What I would say is that the accounts receivable that we had on our books as of the end of the quarter was mostly collected in the next thirty days. We also see, because we are concentrate producers, as the price of silver goes up, the pricing on shipments will be a future month, so we see the value of the accounts receivable go up as well. So that is part of what you are seeing in accounts receivable. As it relates to Lucky Friday, we generally ship on a weekly basis, and therefore it depends on when during the week the month falls, which determines what the AR or the inventory is.

Great. Then in terms of Greens Creek, it sounds like there are interesting projects that you have in place, and it is good that you have announced the pyrite concentrate project as well. In terms of return on invested capital, what kind of hurdle rate are you looking at for some of these projects? And for the pyrite concentrate project, to the extent that you can share, any potential penalty elements in that concentrate and what is the market like right now for pyrite concentrate?

In terms of return on invested capital, we have not isolated it for that particular project, but it would be very compelling given that it is a fairly low capex project. I am going to guess around $40 million to $50 million for a circuit as a starting point. So I would expect the return on that investment to be really quite compelling. Our corporate target is 12% to 15%, and this will easily fit in that. With regards to the pyrite concentrate market, my understanding is it is very strong, and that is why we are looking at it. This also potentially unlocks more reserves as well as contributes to revenue.

The only thing I would add, Cosmos, is that we have run these things internally, but we are very early in the process. I do not want to give a specific number that we would have to reel back because there is a lot of work left to do. In the work that we have done, looking at treatment charges and refining charges for both gold and silver and the payabilities, we are being conservative. Even with what I would hope are conservative, longer-term treatment and refining charges, it is still very compelling. That is about all the detail we have right now until we are able to do a bit more work and really put a holistic study around it.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that it also reduces our reclamation liability. Multiple benefits here. We are very excited about this project and also the fact that it is low capital intensity and near term.

If you do get the go-ahead for it sometime down the road, can these projects happen concurrently—the tailings recovery and the pyrite concentrate?

Spot on, Cosmos. We are working on both streams. They are not going to land at the same time—the pyrite concentrate is obviously much shorter term. Just to remind you, for tailings reprocessing, our phase-three testing is underway at the moment. The samples have arrived in the laboratory. If we get success on that, we will update the market later on this year. The next stage would be progressively scaling up to a pilot plant potentially, and then scaling up beyond that. That is earlier stage and probably not going to deliver before the pyrite concentrate, but we are working on both of them at the same time.

Great. Thanks, Robert, Russell, and team for answering all my questions.

Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Terentiew from National Bank. Alexander, your line is now open.

Good morning, and congrats again on another good quarter. I just want to follow up on Keno Hill. To get to the 440, you are talking about mid-2029 to get those permits. You previously talked about slowly ramping up over the next few years. Is that still the plan with that timing, or should we assume more steady state until then?

Hi, Alexander. I think we are looking at more steady state. Some of that will be dependent on ongoing discussions with the regulators, trying to provide short-term relief. But I think you can expect a steady state or, in some cases, slowing down a bit to make sure that we are maintaining capacity.

Great, thanks. On capital returns, you noted you are going to have some discussions with your board on capital return strategy. You also mentioned you have a share buyback in place. Is this something that you plan to have as a program or be more opportunistic? How are you approaching that?

We need to discuss that with our board and ensure that we are all aligned on a holistic strategy. I would also suggest that any investments we do make from a shareholder return perspective still have to meet the return on investment criteria that we have outlined for investments we make in our business as well. We will be looking at it from that perspective.

That makes sense. Last question, if I may. Greens Creek had another really good quarter here—beat my numbers at least based on grade. If you look at annual guidance, this was above 25%. Was that in line with expectations, those better grades? Do you see any planned downtimes or lower-grade phases that we could expect for the rest of the year? Is there room for the guidance to possibly even be improved a little if you are hitting better grades than expected?

We are reiterating our grade and cost guidance for Greens Creek, and we are expecting similar grades for the remainder of the year.

That is good to see. Thank you. That is it for me.

Thank you for your questions. Your next question comes from the line of John Tumazos from John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is now open.

Thank you for taking my question. How should we compare the new Midas mine to the old one that Dr. Ken Snyder and the team started up? Should we think of it as 500 tons a day, half an ounce gold, 10-to-1 silver? Might the tons be more?

Thanks for your question, John. I would say it is almost certainly going to look different from the old Midas mine. Two things here. The starting resource at Sinsa, which I have flagged previously, is roughly between 180,000 to 200,000 ounces at very high grades. It is a narrower orebody. The extensions that Kurt and his team have found are again narrow and very high grade. The mill is rated at 1,200 tonnes per day, so that is what we have to play with. We are looking at potentially multiple ore sources from the Sinsa area. We are also relooking at any potential remnant mining at Midas itself. That is a study underway, and you will recall that Midas was closed at a significantly lower gold price than where we are today, so there are potentially some wins there. We have potentially multiple ore sources, and it is not going to look exactly like the previous Midas operation. The one thing that is constant is that there is a permitted limit of 1,200 tonnes per day for the mill.

Thank you. I am unfamiliar with Aurora. Could you tell us whether it is an open pit heap-leach target, what the range of grades might be, whether it has much silver in it, or whatever we know thus far about Aurora?

Thanks for that. I am going to ask Kurt to chip in in a minute, but I have to say, as Kurt pointed out, I went out to Aurora about four weeks ago. I had heard Kurt talking very excitedly about Aurora in the past, and when I went out there, I get it. You walk around on the surface and there are historic open pits and historic undergrounds. There are veins with incredible intensity that just run for kilometers. And Kurt's favorite target has never had a single drill hole in it. Kurt?

Our targets that we have defined are underground mineable targets. We are not focused on open pit mineralization there at this point. There has been open pit mining at Aurora in the past, but we are really focused on high-grade underground mineable targets. Really excited about this project.

Is it gold only, or is it gold and silver?

It is gold and silver, probably a one-to-one ratio. For the most part, it is high-grade gold, but there is associated high-grade silver with that as well.

Thank you. If I could ask one more. Coeur and Pan American each made large silver acquisitions in Mexico. I know you are sticking to the U.S. and Canada. Now that your balance sheet is very strong, is it possible to consider an acquisition, and if so, would it be limited to the U.S. and Canada? Most of the silver targets are in Latin America or spread around the world.

Good question. One of the things that really differentiates us, as I pointed out in the opening slide, is that we operate in safe jurisdictions. You have to go where the silver is, and given the scarcity of primary silver deposits, we would consider other jurisdictions, but again, that has to be in relatively safe jurisdictions. As a rule of thumb, anything in the top third of the Fraser Institute index we would do a proper analysis on. We would not accept it at face value and would understand those risks before we moved. So we would potentially go offshore, but in a safe jurisdiction. On M&A, we have outlined our organic growth projects. That is really what we are focused on. Obviously, we continue to look at opportunities—you never stop looking in this business—but we are not really interested in getting bigger for its own sake. Scale alone does not create value, and I think Russell discussed the dilution that comes with doing M&A. It is an easy trap to fall into and one we have consciously rejected. Again, what we are really focused on is long-term shareholder value creation on a per share basis, and that governs all the decisions that we make. We are going to be disciplined if and when we do M&A. It is really going to be about jurisdiction—safer jurisdictions—precious metals focused with a strong silver bias. Exceptional gold assets we will consider, but only if they are compelling cash generators that would really fund our overall silver strategy. Silver first. We would also have to see a clear competitive advantage for us in operating the asset, whether that is district consolidation, leveraging existing infrastructure, our technical capability, or exploration upside—whatever that is, we would need to see a competitive advantage—and financial returns, obviously, as Russell talked about. Right now, the M&A environment is pretty active. There is competitive pressure to move. We understand that, but we have seen what happens when companies acquire out of fear of missing out rather than conviction, and we are not going to do that. We are not acquisition-dependent for growth. Our internal pipeline is our main focus, but we will obviously be opportunistic.

Thank you and congratulations.

This completes the time allocated for questions. If you have additional questions, please reach out to Mike Parkin via the Contact Us link on the website. I will now turn the call back to Robert L. Krcmarov, President and CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Hillary, and thank you all for your time and your questions this morning. This team has worked hard to get Hecla Mining Company to this point—debt free, cash generative, and with the best silver exposure in the sector. The fundamentals are with us and we are just getting started. Have a great day, everyone. Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.