Hecla will pay $263M to settle case

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The largest mining company in Idaho’s Silver Valley will pay $263.4 million plus interest to settle one of the nation’s largest Superfund lawsuits.

The U.S. Department of Justice today announced that Hecla Mining Co., of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, will pay the money to the U.S. government, state of Idaho and Coeur d’Alene tribal governments for releasing mining wastes into the environment.

The money will be used in the Environmental Protection Agency’s multi-billion dollar cleanup of the toxic mining wastes that will last for decades. Hecla is the nation’s largest silver producer, operating the Lucky Friday Mine in the Silver Valley and a mine in Mexico.

The agreement was filed today in federal court in Boise, Idaho.

The valley is 50 miles east of Spokane, Wash.