Hecla Mining Vp Has Earned Her Stripes Veltkamp Is First Woman Vice President In Company’S 109-Year History

Vicki Veltkamp never loses an opportunity to talk to people about the importance of mining in their everyday lives.

“It’s almost a mission for me,” said Veltkamp, who works for Hecla Mining Co.

People don’t think about how many minerals are used to make their computer, their phone, their car or their house.

“They have no idea how it touches their lives,” she said. “They should know that before arbitrarily deciding mining is not an industry that should be in the U.S.”

Veltkamp recently became the first woman vice president in Hecla’s 109-year history. Her ability to communicate with the public was among the reasons she was promoted, said Art Brown, Hecla’s chairman and CEO.

“She’s very deserving,” Brown said. The title of vice president is bestowed sparingly at Hecla. “You have to earn your stripes,” he said.

When Veltkamp came to work for Hecla in 1988 as director of public relations, the former broadcast journalist said she knew little about mining.

“I think the education I’ve had in the last 12 years has been phenomenal,” said Veltkamp, who is now vice president of investor and public relations. “The people at Hecla have been good teachers.”

About 6.5 percent of the people who work in the U.S. mining industry are women. The traditional path to a vice presidency has been through a career in engineering or geology, Brown said. More recently, companies have started naming vice presidents in finance, human resources and communications.

“Mining obviously is a male-dominated industry. Radio was too,” said Veltkamp, a former news director for National Public Radio in Pullman.

Veltkamp, 43, spent a decade in broadcast journalism in the Northwest before switching to corporate communications.

She was looking for new job challenges, but didn’t want to move to a big city. Coeur d’Alene’s recreational opportunities caught her eye.

“I came here with the exuberance of youth, figuring that somebody needed me,” she said.

Veltkamp worked for an advertising agency, then was hired by Hecla. She’s spent a total of 10 years at the company, broken by a two-year stint at a gold company in Sante Fe, N.M.

Veltkamp said her communications background helps her “interpret” the mining industry to the public. She took accounting classes to broaden her knowledge of finance.

Her job duties include writing the company’s quarterly and annual reports. She also responds to shareholder and media inquiries and works with financial analysts and potential investors.

Becoming an expert in mining is “like the opportunity to do one really long feature story,” Veltkamp said.

The job has taken her to Hecla’s mining operations in Latin America. She’s become acquainted with mining industry officials all over the U.S.

“There are not very many places in a town this size where you can work for a company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange,” Veltkamp said.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

FAST FACT

Computers and mining

A computer contains 33 elements and minerals. Some of the more commonly known are: gold, aluminum, copper, nickel, iron, tin, antimony, cobalt, platinum, manganese, mercury, mica, silver, zinc, and molybdenum.