Note 8. Shareholders' Equity

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Stockholders' Equity Note Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 8.    Shareholders’ Equity

Common Stock Dividends

In September 2011, our Board of Directors adopted a common stock dividend policy that links the amount of anticipated dividends on our common stock to our average quarterly realized silver price in the preceding quarter.  For illustrative purposes only, the table below summarizes potential per share dividend amounts at different quarterly average realized price levels according to the policy:

Quarterly average realized silver price per ounce	Quarterly dividend per share	Annualized dividend per share
$30	$0.01	$0.04
$35	$0.02	$0.08
$40	$0.03	$0.12
$45	$0.04	$0.16
$50	$0.05	$0.20
$55	$0.06	$0.24
$60	$0.07	$0.28

On February 17, 2012, our Board of Directors declared a silver price-linked common stock dividend, pursuant to the policy described above, of $0.01 per share based on the average realized silver price of $31.61 per ounce in the fourth quarter of 2011.  In addition, in February 2012, our Board of Directors adopted an additional common stock dividend policy that includes a minimum anticipated annual dividend of $0.01 per share of common stock, payable quarterly when declared, and declared a dividend of $0.0025 per share pursuant to that policy.  Therefore, the aggregate common stock dividend declared by our Board of Directors was $0.0125 per share, for a total of approximately $3.6 million paid in March 2012.  On May 8, 2012, our Board of Directors declared a silver price-linked common dividend of $0.02 per share, based on the realized silver price for the first quarter of 2012 of $36.59, along with a $0.0025 common dividend related to our $0.01 minimum anticipated annual dividend policy.  The total cash dividend of approximately $6.4 million will be paid in the second quarter of 2012.  The declaration and payment of common stock dividends is at the sole discretion of our Board of Directors.

Conversion of 6.5% Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock to Common Stock

On January 1, 2011, all 2,012,500 outstanding shares of our 6.5% Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock were automatically converted to shares of our common stock at a conversion rate of 9.3773 shares of Common Stock for each share of 6.5% Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock.  We issued approximately 18.9 million shares of common stock in connection with the mandatory conversion.  The final $3.3 million quarterly dividend on the 6.5% Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 was paid in cash in January 2011.

Warrants

The following table summarizes certain information about our stock purchase warrants at March 31, 2012:

Warrants Outstanding	Warrants		Exercise Price		Expiration Date
Series 1 warrants		5,200,519	$	2.43	June 2014
Series 1 warrants		460,976		2.54	June 2014
Series 3 warrants		16,671,128		2.48	August 2014
Total warrants outstanding		22,332,623

No warrants were exercised during the first three months of 2012.  Under the financial terms of the Consent Decree settling the Coeur d’Alene Basin litigation, the proceeds from the exercise of our outstanding warrants will be paid to the Plaintiffs within 30 days after the end of the quarter when exercised.  Proceeds from Series 1 and Series 3 warrant exercises  totaling approximately $0.7 million and $10.5 million were paid to the Plaintiffs in 2012 and 2011, respectively, under the terms of the Consent Decree.