Chief Executive Officer, President & Director, Hecla Mining
Search every verified Robert Krcmarov interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In January 2025, Rob Krcmarov, the 11th CEO in Hecla Mining's 133-year history, outlined his strategic priorities. He stated that the company's direction will focus on maximizing the value of its portfolio, including a "measured pathway to optimizing production and profitability" at the Kino Hill mine in the Yukon. Krcmarov said the company will focus on generating cash flow rather than solely maximizing production, and plans to invest in critical infrastructure and foster relationships with the First Nations of Nacho Nyak Dun to turn Kino Hill around, similar to the turnaround at the Lucky Friday mine. He described Hecla's legacy as a leader in silver mining with a culture of innovation, citing the underhand closed bench mining method developed at Lucky Friday as an example that improved safety and boosted production. Krcmarov expressed a bullish outlook on silver, noting that it serves as both a store of monetary value and an industrial metal with high conductivity. He observed that silver supply has been flat at around one billion ounces over the last decade, while demand is set to increase by about 4.5% in 2025, creating a deficit. He added that the Silver Institute predicts the deficit will continue for the foreseeable future. In a 2022 interview, Krcmarov discussed his management approach at Barrick Gold, where he said he would present the value proposition to board members in accessible terms and emphasized the importance of making hard decisions proactively, such as closing an entire region to fund better opportunities.
“What a found truly appealing was Heckler's legacy of being a leader in the silver mining space, a really incredible portfolio of assets and a deep rooted culture of innovation.”
“The underhand cross bench mining method developed at Lucky Friday is testament to that spirit of innovation; it not only improved safety, which is a core value at our company, but it really significantly boosted production.”
“Our strategic direction is really going to focus on maximizing the value of our really extensive portfolio, including finding a measured pathway to optimizing production and profitability at our Kino Hill mine in the Yukon.”
“We need to make some investments in critical infrastructure, foster strong relationships with the First Nations of Nacho Nyak Dun, and really set Kino Hill up to be a very successful operation and turning it around like we did at Lucky Friday.”
“We're going to focus more on generating cash flow as opposed to focusing solely on production maximization.”
“Silver is really fascinating because it's not only a store of monetary value like gold is, it also has industrial use; it has the highest conductivity and the lowest resistivity.”
“On the supply side, production's been fairly flat over the last decade around about a billion ounces, but on the demand side, demand this year is set to increase by about 4 and a half percent, creating an extra 200 million ounce deficit.”
“For the last four consecutive quarters, there's been a deficit in silver supply and demand, and the Silver Institute is predicting that this deficit is going to continue for the foreseeable future.”
“Consequently, we're quite bullish on the outlook for silver.”
“François has this unique ability to spend one or two days on site and he'll completely understand the geology — he gets down to what the key things are that we don't know, what the risks are and what the opportunities are, and he'll break it down very easily.”
“The power in the system was that everyone had a say — proposals got put in front of the entire group with no management filter, so everyone had a voice and got exposure to different projects and how various members were thinking.”
“We would spend plenty of time in the field so people became comfortable — sharing long car rides or hikes puts people at ease; there was no real judging. Almost every geologist had to put up some sort of proposal, so presenting became embedded in your DNA.”
“We wouldn't always seek unanimous consensus; when a decision was made people could understand the rationale behind it. If a project was near the cut-off line we'd spend an hour or two discussing it, but ultimately if it remained ambiguous I would have to make that call.”
“As you go up the resource triangle into the drilling stage, you need to start considering project economics — the economics become increasingly important as projects advance.”
“I used to go to every board meeting and make a board presentation; I would always remind them of the value proposition and break down what we do into something board members with no technical knowledge could understand.”
Rob Krcmarov, President & CEO of Hecla Mining, shares his vision for the company's future, key priorities under his leadership, ...
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