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Note 11 - Business Segments and Significant Customers | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2016
Notes to Financial Statements |
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. 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, |
|  | 2016 |  |  | 2015 |  |  | 2014 |
Greens Creek |  |  | 40.3 | % |  |  | 51.4 | % |  |  | 49.0 | %
Lucky Friday |  |  | 14.7 | % |  |  | 14.9 | % |  |  | 17.9 | %
Casa Berardi |  |  | 27.4 | % |  |  | 33.7 | % |  |  | 33.1 | %
San Sebastian |  |  | 17.6 | % |  |  | — | % |  |  | — | %
|  |  | 100 | % |  |  | 100 | % |  |  | 100 | %
The tables below present information about reportable segments as of and for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands).
|  | 2016 |  |  | 2015 |  |  | 2014 |
Net sales to unaffiliated customers: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Greens Creek |  | $ | 260,446 |  |  | $ | 227,833 |  |  | $ | 245,175 |
Lucky Friday |  |  | 94,479 |  |  |  | 66,302 |  |  |  | 89,757 |
Casa Berardi |  |  | 177,143 |  |  |  | 149,432 |  |  |  | 165,849 |
San Sebastian |  |  | 113,889 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |
|  | $ | 645,957 |  |  | $ | 443,567 |  |  | $ | 500,781 |
Income (loss) from operations: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Greens Creek |  | $ | 65,125 |  |  | $ | 26,536 |  |  | $ | 39,758 |
Lucky Friday |  |  | 18,175 |  |  |  | 868 |  |  |  | 21,501 |
Casa Berardi |  |  | 16,336 |  |  |  | (1,557 | ) |  |  | 11,828 |
San Sebastian |  |  | 77,221 |  |  |  | (9,269 | ) |  |  | (5,780 | )
Other |  |  | (59,913 | ) |  |  | (52,189 | ) |  |  | (45,679 | )
|  | $ | 116,944 |  |  | $ | (35,611 | ) |  | $ | 21,628 |
Capital additions (including non-cash additions): |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Greens Creek |  | $ | 42,013 |  |  | $ | 45,962 |  |  | $ | 31,476 |
Lucky Friday |  |  | 44,839 |  |  |  | 60,020 |  |  |  | 52,193 |
Casa Berardi |  |  | 67,577 |  |  |  | 35,302 |  |  |  | 48,615 |
San Sebastian |  |  | 6,026 |  |  |  | 4,623 |  |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | 21,344 |  |  |  | 14,809 |  |  |  | 18,801 |
|  | $ | 181,799 |  |  | $ | 160,716 |  |  | $ | 151,085 |
Depreciation, depletion and amortization: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Greens Creek |  | $ | 52,564 |  |  | $ | 56,553 |  |  | $ | 63,505 |
Lucky Friday |  |  | 11,810 |  |  |  | 11,262 |  |  |  | 9,431 |
Casa Berardi |  |  | 47,312 |  |  |  | 43,674 |  |  |  | 38,198 |
San Sebastian |  |  | 3,782 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |
|  | $ | 115,468 |  |  | $ | 111,489 |  |  | $ | 111,134 |
Other significant non-cash items: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Greens Creek |  | $ | 2,736 |  |  | $ | 2,886 |  |  | $ | 2,807 |
Lucky Friday |  |  | 720 |  |  |  | 72 |  |  |  | 72 |
Casa Berardi |  |  | 1,259 |  |  |  | 2,229 |  |  |  | 847 |
San Sebastian |  |  | — |  |  |  | 13 |  |  |  | — |
Other |  |  | 11,135 |  |  |  | 66,004 |  |  |  | 506 |
|  | $ | 15,850 |  |  | $ | 71,204 |  |  | $ | 4,232 |
Identifiable assets: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Greens Creek |  | $ | 681,303 |  |  | $ | 698,265 |  |  | $ | 704,121 |
Lucky Friday |  |  | 442,829 |  |  |  | 393,338 |  |  |  | 356,482 |
Casa Berardi |  |  | 806,044 |  |  |  | 779,423 |  |  |  | 800,961 |
San Sebastian |  |  | 33,608 |  |  |  | 22,238 |  |  |  | 1,529 |
Other |  |  | 407,893 |  |  |  | 328,661 |  |  |  | 398,971 |
|  | $ | 2,371,677 |  |  | $ | 2,221,925 |  |  | $ | 2,262,064 |
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, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):
|  | 2016 |  |  | 2015 |  |  | 2014 |
United States |  | $ | 22,499 |  |  | $ | 17,862 |  |  | $ | 22,200 |
Canada |  |  | 437,621 |  |  |  | 275,771 |  |  |  | 295,027 |
Japan |  |  | 44,158 |  |  |  | 38,835 |  |  |  | 58,466 |
Korea |  |  | 116,687 |  |  |  | 66,293 |  |  |  | 70,548 |
China |  |  | 35,220 |  |  |  | 38,611 |  |  |  | 53,067 |
Other |  |  | 4,008 |  |  |  | — |  |  |  | — |
Total, excluding gains/losses on forward contracts |  | $ | 660,193 |  |  | $ | 437,372 |  |  | $ | 499,308 |
Sales of products for 2016 include net losses of $14.2 million, and 2015 included net gains 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 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, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):
|  | 2016 |  |  | 2015 |
United States |  | $ | 1,261,488 |  |  | $ | 1,150,521 |
Canada |  |  | 764,489 |  |  |  | 741,612 |
Mexico |  |  | 6,708 |  |  |  | 4,678 |
|  | $ | 2,032,685 |  |  | $ | 1,896,811 |
Sales from continuing operations to significant metals customers as a percentage of total sales were as follows for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014:
|  | Year Ended December 31, |
|  | 2016 |  |  | 2015 |  |  | 2014 |
Teck Metals Ltd. |  |  | 21.2 | % |  |  | 22.5 | % |  |  | 25.8 | %
Korea Zinc |  |  | 16.9 | % |  |  | 16.0 | % |  |  | 14.1 | %
Scotia |  |  | 24.5 | % |  |  | 5.6 | % |  |  | - | %
CIBC |  |  | 19.0 | % |  |  | 17.6 | % |  |  | 17.0 | %
Mitsui |  |  | 4.4 | % |  |  | 10.2 | % |  |  | 15.8 | %
The sales and income (loss) from operations amounts reported above include results from our Lucky Friday segment. The Lucky Friday mine is our only operation where some of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement, and the most recent agreement expired on April 30, 2016. On February 19, 2017, the unionized employees voted against our contract offer. We expect further discussions with the union but it is possible that an agreement will not be reached, in which case we cannot predict what might happen next, including what actions we or the union might take in response to failing to reach an agreement. In the event of a prolonged strike or other event related to labor at the Lucky Friday, operations at Lucky Friday could be disrupted, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for reporting segments including data and tables. Reportable segments include those that meet any of the following quantitative thresholds a) it's reported revenue, including sales to external customers and intersegment sales or transfers is 10 percent or more of the combined revenue, internal and external, of all operating segments b) the absolute amount of its reported profit or loss is 10 percent or more of the greater, in absolute amount of 1) the combined reported profit of all operating segments that did not report a loss or 2) the combined reported loss of all operating segments that did report a loss c) its assets are 10 percent or more of the combined assets of all operating segments. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 34 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8981-108599 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 41 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e9038-108599 Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 33 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8971-108599 Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 12 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8595-108599 Reference 5: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8380-108599 Reference 6: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 32 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8933-108599 Reference 7: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 26 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8844-108599 Reference 8: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 35 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8984-108599 Reference 9: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 40 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e9031-108599 Reference 10: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 42 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e9054-108599 Reference 11: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 10 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8538-108599 Reference 12: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 29 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8864-108599 Reference 13: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 31 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8924-108599 Reference 14: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 30 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68060357&loc=d3e8906-108599 + Details
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