Note 11 - Business Segments and Significant Customers

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 11: Business Segments and Significant Customers

We discover, acquire, develop, produce, and market concentrates and doré containing silver, gold, lead and zinc.  Our products consist of both metal concentrates, which we sell to custom smelters and brokers, and unrefined bullion bars (doré), which may be sold as doré or further refined before sale to precious metals traders.  We are currently organized and managed in four segments, which represent our operating units: the Greens Creek unit, the Lucky Friday unit, the Casa Berardi unit, and the San Sebastian unit. As further discussed in Note 15, we completed the acquisition of Aurizon on June 1, 2013, giving us 100% ownership of the Casa Berardi mine in Quebec, Canada. As a result, we added a new reporting segment in 2013 for the Casa Berardi unit. The San Sebastian unit, a historic operating property for Hecla, resumed commercial production in the fourth quarter of 2015 and was added as a new reporting segment in 2015.

General corporate activities not associated with operating units and their various exploration activities, as well as discontinued operations and idle properties, are presented as “other.”  Interest expense, interest income and income taxes are considered general corporate items, and are not allocated to our segments.

Sales of metal concentrates and metal products are made principally to custom smelters, brokers and metals traders. The percentage of sales contributed by each segment is reflected in the following table:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2015		2014		2013
Greens Creek	51.4	%	49.0	%	68.8	%
Lucky Friday	14.9	%	17.9	%	11.6	%
Casa Berardi	33.7	%	33.1	%	19.6	%
San Sebastian	—	%	—	%	—	%
	100	%	100	%	100	%

The tables below present information about reportable segments as of and for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands).

	2015			2014			2013
Net sales to unaffiliated customers:
Greens Creek	$	227,833		$	245,175		$	263,263
Lucky Friday		66,302			89,757			44,204
Casa Berardi		149,432			165,849			75,122
San Sebastian		—			—			—
	$	443,567		$	500,781		$	382,589
Income (loss) from operations:
Greens Creek	$	26,536		$	39,758		$	62,178
Lucky Friday		868			21,501			(3,563	)
Casa Berardi		(1,557	)		11,828			(15,708	)
San Sebastian		(9,269	)		(5,780	)		(6,445	)
Other		(52,189	)		(45,679	)		(68,856	)
	$	(35,611	)	$	21,628		$	(32,394	)
Capital additions (including non-cash additions):
Greens Creek	$	45,962		$	31,476		$	57,119
Lucky Friday		60,020			52,193			55,902
Casa Berardi		35,302			48,615			41,425
San Sebastian		4,623			—			—
Other		14,809			18,801			8,162
	$	160,716		$	151,085		$	162,608
Depreciation, depletion and amortization:
Greens Creek	$	56,553		$	63,505		$	55,265
Lucky Friday		11,262			9,431			7,833
Casa Berardi		43,674			38,198			18,030
San Sebastian		—			—			—
	$	111,489		$	111,134		$	81,128
Other significant non-cash items:
Greens Creek	$	2,886		$	2,807		$	1,961
Lucky Friday		72			72			96
Casa Berardi		2,229			847			474
San Sebastian		13			—			—
Other		66,004			506			1,512
	$	71,204		$	4,232		$	4,043
Identifiable assets:
Greens Creek	$	698,265		$	704,121		$	744,027
Lucky Friday		393,338			356,482			313,793
Casa Berardi		779,423			800,961			821,058
San Sebastian		22,238			1,529			1,491
Other		328,661			398,971			351,750
	$	2,221,925		$	2,262,064		$	2,232,119

The following is sales information by geographic area based on the location of smelters and brokers (for concentrate shipments) and the location of parent companies (for doré sales to metals traders) for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands):

	2015		2014		2013
United States	$	17,862	$	22,200	$	22,361
Canada		275,771		295,027		170,632
Japan		38,835		58,466		50,039
Korea		66,293		70,548		86,035
China		38,611		53,067		50,479
Total, excluding gains/losses on forward contracts	$	437,372	$	499,308	$	379,546

Sales of products for 2015 also include a net gain of $6.2 million on financially-settled forward contracts for silver, gold, lead and zinc contained in our concentrate sales.  2014 sales included a net gain of $1.5 million and 2013 sales included a net gain of $3.0 million on the contracts for lead and zinc. See Note 10 for more information.

The following are our long-lived assets by geographic area as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):

	2015		2014
United States	$	1,150,521	$	1,081,699
Canada		741,612		749,810
Mexico		4,678		55
	$	1,896,811	$	1,831,564

Sales from continuing operations to significant metals customers as a percentage of total sales were as follows for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2015			2014			2013
Teck Metals Ltd.		22.5	%		25.8	%		25.0	%
Korea Zinc		16.0	%		14.1	%		22.5	%
CIBC		17.6	%		17.0	%		10.9	%
Mitsui		10.2	%		15.8	%		8.4	%