Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation’s Kensington gold mine in Alaska will resume full production ahead of schedule, the Coeur d’Alene-based company announced today.

The company in November announced a temporary reduction in mining and milling activities to allow for completion of several underground and surface projects at Kensington, 45 miles north of Juneau.

The majority of these projects have been completed or are scheduled to be completed by the end of July, Coeur said.

The mine contains 1.3 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves, and is expected to produce 82,600 to 86,500 ounces of gold this year.

Coeur d'Alene Mines is the largest U.S.-based primary silver producer and a growing gold producer.

Hecla Mining Co. has made management changes at the troubled Lucky Friday Mine.

Ed Sutich has been named vice president and general manager of the underground silver mine in Mullan, Idaho.

He replaces Jeff Jordan, who has moved to Hecla’s corporate office as vice president of technical services.

The Lucky Friday Mine is closed while the company completes about $30 million worth of work on the main shaft.

Federal inspectors ordered the shaft closure in January after a special emphasis safety inspection that was triggered by two fatalities at the mine in 2011.

Sutich, the mine’s new general manager, has 30 years of mining experience. He previously was Freeport Indonesia’s manager of underground development.

Jordan will be responsible for mining and geotechnical engineering and metallurgy in his new position.

Michael Wegleitner has been appointed as Hecla’s safety and health director. He has spent 25 years working on those issues in the mining, construction and energy industries.

Hecla Mining Co. today announced that it is going to build a bypass at Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan, Idaho, to take workers away from an area where a rock burst last week injured seven miners.

The company said it will build a 750-foot bypass through an area previously mined to access ore at the 5,900-foot depth where the rock burst occurred.

Three of the seven injured miners were held at local hospitals right after the rock burst on Dec. 14, but all were later released.

Hecla closed the mine right after the accident, an action that was followed by an order from federal officials to close the mine.

The bypass will create a new haulage way for moving silver ore out of the mine.

Hecla Mining Co. is opening an office in Idaho’s Silver Valley to keep local residents abreast of future expansions at the Lucky Friday Mine and the company’s role in environmental cleanup in the area.

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo will speak at the grand opening of the new office at 10:30 a.m. Friday at 611 Bank St. in Wallace. The event is open to the public.

“The one constant for Hecla in nearly 120 years of mining throughout North and South America has been our presence and operations in the Silver Valley,” said Phil Baker, Hecla’s present and CEO.

Over the next 12 months, Baker said company officials will make decisions about the future of the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan, Idaho. A $150 million to $200 million expansion of the mine is under consideration, which allow the company to access silver deposits below the existing workings.

Hecla’s corporate offices were located in Wallace until 1986, when the company moved its headquarters to Coeur d’Alene.