Note 2 - Business Segments and Sales of Products

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

Notes to Financial Statements

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 2.    Business Segments and Sales of Products

We discover, acquire and develop mines and other mineral interests and produce and market concentrates, carbon material and doré containing silver, gold, lead and zinc. We are currently organized and managed in five segments, which represent our operating units: the Greens Creek unit, the Lucky Friday unit, the Casa Berardi unit, the San Sebastian exploration unit, and the Nevada Operations unit.

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 and mining taxes are considered general corporate items, and are not allocated to our segments.

The following tables present information about our reportable segments for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021			2020
Net sales to unaffiliated customers:
Greens Creek	$	98,409		$	53,833
Lucky Friday		29,122			2,830
Casa Berardi		72,911			46,172
San Sebastian		173			9,927
Nevada Operations		10,237			24,163
	$	210,852		$	136,925
Income (loss) from operations:
Greens Creek	$	44,600		$	4,117
Lucky Friday		6,323			(8,120	)
Casa Berardi		9,117			(3,880	)
San Sebastian		(2,263	)		679
Nevada Operations		(3,140	)		2,889
Other		(16,188	)		(10,749	)
	$	38,449		$	(15,064	)

The following table presents identifiable assets by reportable segment as of March 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 (in thousands):

	March 31, 2021		December 31, 2020
Identifiable assets:
Greens Creek	$	609,612	$	610,360
Lucky Friday		513,645		520,463
Casa Berardi		683,103		694,522
San Sebastian		41,238		42,617
Nevada Operations		510,514		513,309
Other		296,965		286,453
	$	2,655,077	$	2,667,724

Sales of products by metal for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 were as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021			2020
Silver	$	77,760		$	37,572
Gold		101,408			90,694
Lead		15,893			6,420
Zinc		29,191			17,308
Less: Smelter and refining charges		(13,400	)		(15,069	)
Sales of products	$	210,852		$	136,925

Sales of products for the first three months of 2021 and 2020 included net gains of $2.8 million and $1.7 million, respectively, on financially-settled forward and put option contracts for silver, gold, lead and zinc contained in our sales.  See Note 8 for more information.