Please join the United Steelworkers, shareholders, environmentalists and elected officials to demand accountability from Hecla because workers, our families and communities cannot afford further mismanagement.

U.S. officials on Tuesday announced approval of the first phase of a silver and copper mine beneath a northwestern Montana wilderness area, yet it’s uncertain when work could begin because of a legal dispute over pollution at other sites.

Our family ranch near Trout Creek at one time included an old mine off the southern end of Goat Peak Ridge. The prospectors at the time never “struck it rich.” But they were close. About a mile to the northwest, the Treasure State could strike it rich for all of Big Sky Country off that same vein – if state government will act responsibly. The Rock Creek and Montanore mining projects are nearing completion of a decades-long environmental permitting process. At full operations, they could provide more than 600 jobs for a region of Montana that has led the state in unemployment and poverty since the collapse of the federal timber harvest.

An Idaho mining company notified environmental regulators Tuesday that it was halting reclamation work at a closed silver and copper mine in northwest Montana, amid a legal fight with the state over cleanup expenses at other sites.

New Jersey Mining Co. recently sold its Toboggan project to a subsidiary of Hecla Mining Co. for $3 million. The Toboggan property includes the surface rights to the Little Baldy patented claims and 106 unpatented mining claims within the Murray Gold Belt in North Idaho.

An ongoing strike at the Lucky Friday Mine and tax issues contributed to a drop in earnings for Hecla Mining Co., which reported first quarter income of $8.1 million on Thursday.