Page 22 Contd on pg 23 Complex gold production for the second quarter of 122500 ounces was a major contributor towards the total of 646000 ounces produced by the company s 1 1 mines Drilling contin ued on the NXT zone during the quarter T o date results indicate that the zone remai ns open vertically and to the west Several drills are tar geting this zone both from the 4199 exploration drift and from existing infrastructure at higher levels in the mine Additional development of the 47 level drift to provide closer drill ac cess to this zone was completed as planned during the second quarter and drilling will continue throughout the remainder of the year W idening of the old Cochenour shaft continued to advance during the sec ond quarter of 2013 with 65 metres slashed to a total depth of 716 metres as compared to 120 metres in the pri or quarter A concrete liner was also placed for a total concrete depth of 707 metres as compared to 640 me tres in the prior quarter The advance rates are consistent with plan Advancing of the fve kilometre Co Contd from pg 20 chenour Red Lake Haulage Drift con tinued with 76 completed at the end of the second quarter The advance rate in the drift has been reduced to address the ground conditions and to accommodate additional diamond drill platforms T wo drills continue to work in the haulage drift to test the potential of the underexplored area Under ground exploration diamond drilling of the Bruce Channel Deposit will com mence in the second half of the year once the haulage drift is close enough to drill from and drilling platf orms are excavated By Gregory Reynolds A historic US silver producer has taken a giant step into the gold sector with the acquisition of a lar ge gold mine in Quebec Hecla Mining Company completed the acquisition of Aurizon Mines Ltd on June 1 2013 thus acquiring the Casa Berardi Mine Under the term s of the transaction which is simil ar to a mer ger with a Hecla subsidiary under US law Hecla acquired all of the outstand ing common shares of Aurizon for total consideration of approximately C514 million and 56997790 shares of Hecla common stock Established in 1891 Hecla believes it is the lar gest and lowestcost primary silver producer in the US Before the Aurizon purchase the company has two operating mines and exploration properties in four worldclass silver mining districts in the US and Mex ico Aurizon had eight properties in Que bec these properties included Casa Berardi its operating gold mine the advanced stage gold development property of the Heva and Hosco W est Extension areas and a growing proj ect pipeline In its 2012 annual report Aurizon said the whollyowned Casa Berardi Gold Mine produced 136848 ounces of gold in 2012 from under ground ore production of 693859 tonnes at an average grade of 68 grams of gold per tonne T otal gold production since recommencement of mining in 2006 is now 937100 ounces and greater than 16 million ounces cumulatively since 1988 Hecla s president and CEO Phillips S Baker Jr said Aug 8th that the ac quisition of Aurizon and associated f nancing was a pivotal event for Hecla despite the associated costs resulting in a loss for the second quarter W ith Greens Creek operating well the Lucky Friday ramping up and Casa Berardi in the fnal quarters of com pleting major improvements we are in a strong operating and fnancial po sition However in response to lower pre cious metals prices we have signif cantly scaled back capital exploration and predevelopment expenditures 514 million deal gives US Hecla foothold in Quebec gold industry Red Lake gold pr oduction r emains steady