Hecla Changes Its Golden Eagle Pact

Hecla Mining Co., along with selling half of a Nevada gold project to Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corp. Tuesday, has changed its joint agreement with the company over the Golden Eagle deposit in northeastern Washington.

Santa Fe Pacific continues to examine the Golden Eagle deposit near Hecla’s closed Republic gold mine near Republic, Wash.

The gold that lies there is hard to extract from the rock, but Santa Fe Pacific owns exclusive technology that helps separate gold from that kind of rock. The company uses this technology at Twin Creeks, said Wendy Yang, manager of corporate communications.

Santa Fe Pacific paid Hecla $2.5 million to increase its investment in the Golden Eagle project to $10 million. Hecla keeps a 25 percent stake in the project. Santa Fe Pacific gets more flexibility with the project under the new deal, Yang said.

Hecla closed its Republic mine at the beginning of 1995 when the company could not find more gold reserves there.

, DataTimes