Note 6 - Business Segments and Sales of Products - Percentage of Sales by Segments (Details) - Revenue Benchmark [Member]	3 Months Ended	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2018	Jun. 30, 2019	Jun. 30, 2018
Percentage of sales	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%
Greens Creek [Member]
Percentage of sales	41.00%	51.00%	48.00%	49.00%
Lucky Friday [Member]
Percentage of sales	4.00%	2.00%	2.00%	3.00%
Casa Berardi [Member]
Percentage of sales	34.00%	38.00%	30.00%	39.00%
San Sebastian [Member]
Percentage of sales	8.00%	9.00%	8.00%	9.00%
Nevada Operations [Member]
Percentage of sales	13.00%	0.00%	12.00%	0.00%

For an entity that discloses a concentration risk in relation to quantitative amount, which serves as the "benchmark" (or denominator) in the equation, this concept represents the concentration percentage derived from the division.

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 18
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=99393423&loc=d3e6351-108592

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 825
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 20
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=118260190&loc=d3e13531-108611

Reference 3: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 825
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 21
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=118260190&loc=d3e13537-108611

Reference 4: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 275
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 20
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=99393423&loc=d3e6404-108592

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