Technology

Stress reliefHow Hecla Mining developed an innovative narrow-vein underhand longhole mining method to better manage seismic events at its Lucky Friday mine

How Hecla Mining developed an innovative narrow-vein underhand longhole mining method to better manage seismic events at its Lucky Friday mine

By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco

June 15, 2023

Hecla Mining's Mark Board (left) and Chris Neville (right) after an early blast of the Underhand Closed Bench (UCB) mining method at the Lucky Friday mine. Courtesy of Hecla Mining

In March this year, Hecla Mining received the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration’s 2022 Robert E. Murray Innovation Award for a new mining method it developed to control the release of seismic energy at its Lucky Friday underground silver, lead and zinc mine in the Coeur d’Alene mining district in Idaho, United States.

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