Shares of Hecla Mining Company rose Wednesday to $16.80, up 9.16%, extending gains following the company’s second-quarter results released Tuesday, which showed the largest silver producer in the United States and Canada achieving a debt-free balance sheet alongside record production at one of its key operations.

The Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based miner reported cash flow from continuing operations up 61% year over year to $175 million, while free cash flow more than doubled from the prior year to $136 million, results the company described as reflecting the strongest balance sheet in its history.

Record Production at Lucky Friday

Hecla’s Lucky Friday mine set a new quarterly production record during the period, contributing to consolidated silver output from continuing operations that rose to 4.2 million ounces for the quarter. Greens Creek, the company’s flagship low-cost operation located near Juneau, Alaska, continued to deliver strong production, while the company’s Keno Hill operation in Canada’s Yukon territory posted its fourth consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow, a milestone the company said demonstrated the mine’s underlying profitability at current throughput rates and silver prices.

Despite the strong operational performance, Hecla’s overall revenue for the quarter came in at $334 million, representing an expected pullback from a record prior quarter, primarily reflecting lower realized silver and gold prices during the period. Income from continuing operations totaled $118 million, or 18 cents per share, down from $165 million, or 25 cents per share, in the first quarter, while adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations fell 25% sequentially to $199 million but remained more than double the $93 million posted in the same period a year earlier.

Debt-Free for the First Time in Years

A central highlight of Hecla’s results was the redemption of its remaining $263 million in 7.25% senior notes, a move that leaves the company debt-free, excluding financial leases, for the first time in its recent history. That redemption followed the earlier closing of the sale of Hecla’s Casa Berardi operation, which the company said sharpened its focus on its core silver business while also enabling the earlier redemption of a separate tranche of senior notes in April.

Hecla ended the quarter with a cash position of $483 million, alongside an undrawn $225 million revolving credit facility, giving the company substantial financial flexibility as it continues investing in its operating mines and exploration programs. The company also declared cash dividends on both its common and preferred stock, with a common stock dividend of $0.00375 per share payable to shareholders of record as of Aug. 26, alongside a larger preferred stock dividend tied to a mid-September record date.

Exploration Fuels Long-Term Optimism

Beyond its quarterly financial results, Hecla has continued reporting strong exploration and definition drilling results across several of its key properties, including extensions of high-grade mineralization at Keno Hill and the discovery of new high-grade veins at its Midas property. The company has said these results support its broader district-scale growth strategy, with additional drilling recently initiated at its Hollister property and further exploration planned at Aurora in the coming weeks.

Rob Krcmarov, Hecla’s president and chief executive officer, addressed the company’s strengthened financial position in a statement following the company’s first-quarter results earlier this year, saying the results demonstrated the strength of the platform Hecla has built, and specifically pointed to the Casa Berardi sale and subsequent debt redemption as leaving the company with the strongest balance sheet in its recent history.

A Cautious Note From Analysts

Not all analyst commentary surrounding Hecla has been uniformly bullish. Scotiabank recently trimmed its price target on the stock to $21 from $25, citing more cautious expectations for gold prices heading into 2027, even as the firm maintained a relatively more constructive stance on the outlook for silver pricing specifically. A separate non-binding memorandum of understanding with NVRO Metals, under which Hecla would process 35,000 tonnes of tailings, drew a modest premarket pullback in the stock at the time of its announcement, reflecting some investor concern about execution risk associated with the arrangement despite its potential long-term strategic upside.

Guidance for the Remainder of the Year

For the full year 2026, Hecla has maintained its consolidated silver production guidance in a range of 15.1 million to 16.5 million ounces, alongside consolidated gold production guidance of 65,000 to 72,000 ounces. The company’s shares had traded down as much as 20.9% year to date prior to this week’s rally, reflecting a period of broader caution across the metals sector even as the company’s underlying operational and financial performance has continued to strengthen.

With its balance sheet now debt-free and cash reserves continuing to build, Hecla’s near-term focus is expected to center on the completion of its surface cooling project at Lucky Friday, tracking toward completion by mid-2026, along with continued ramp-up efforts at Keno Hill following recent weather-related production disruptions tied to reduced power availability in the Yukon.

WICHITA, Kan. — A Kansas mother of four is continuing her recovery at home after a suspected spider bite during a Memorial Day weekend campfire triggered a cascade of medical complications that left her fighting for her life, including surgery, dangerous infections and a diagnosis of end-stage liver failure that doctors warned could be fatal.

Britagne Miller, of Goddard, a small city roughly 14 miles west of Wichita, said she was sitting around a campfire with her husband, Jake, and their four children at Cheney Lake on May 28 when several spiders crawled onto her and bit her multiple times, according to local outlets KAKE and FOX Kansas. At the time, none of the bites seemed cause for immediate concern.

A Bite That Kept Getting Worse

Four days later, the situation changed. The area surrounding one bite on Miller’s calf began to swell and grow increasingly painful, prompting her to seek medical care. Describing the sensation to KAKE, Miller said the bite kept swelling and swelling, comparing the feeling to a hot metal fire poker shooting down her leg into her foot, as though she were being stabbed.

Miller was admitted to Wesley Hospital in Wichita on June 4, where doctors performed surgery to address the wound. According to a GoFundMe campaign created by her husband and reporting from KAKE, surgeons removed nearly 300 milliliters of blood clots from the affected area and inserted a drain to help the wound heal.

Complications Multiply

Miller’s treatment quickly grew more complicated. Following the surgery, the wound became infected with both a staph infection and a separate gram-negative bacterial infection, according to KAKE. Her situation was further complicated by preexisting health conditions, including blood-clotting disorders first diagnosed during a previous pregnancy, along with an already compromised liver and allergies to certain medications that limited her treatment options.

As her condition worsened, doctors determined that Miller was suffering from end-stage liver failure and warned her family that her condition could ultimately prove fatal, according to KAKE. Doctors reportedly gave her a prognosis ranging from just days to as little as a month to live. Miller was placed in both medical and cardiac intensive care during the most critical stretch of her hospitalization.

Despite the grim outlook, Miller made the decision to continue pursuing treatment rather than enter hospice care. Recalling the moment she absorbed the severity of her diagnosis, Miller told KAKE that her first thought was that she was done, before her focus immediately shifted to her husband and children. She has said she remembers little from her time in intensive care, a period she described as largely a blur given the severity of her condition.

A Long Road to Recovery

Miller spent roughly 10 days in intensive care before being discharged from the hospital on July 11, bringing her total hospitalization to approximately 44 days. She is now continuing her recovery at home, though her medical journey is far from over. According to her family, Miller now requires ongoing home health care, physical therapy to help her relearn how to walk on her injured leg, and regular visits with specialists in the months ahead.

Perhaps most significantly, Miller still needs a liver transplant, but she is not yet eligible to be placed on a transplant waiting list. Doctors have said her blood clotting levels and other lab values must first stabilize before that process can move forward, leaving her family in a continued state of uncertainty even as she has moved past the most immediate danger.

An Unconfirmed but Suspected Culprit

Despite the severity of Miller’s reaction, doctors have not definitively confirmed which species of spider was responsible for the bite. Based on the appearance of the wound and the region in which the incident occurred, medical staff believe it is consistent with a bite from a brown recluse spider, according to Miller and reporting from KAKE.

Dr. Raymond Cloyd, a horticultural entomologist at Kansas State University, told KAKE that the brown recluse and the black widow are the two venomous spider species most commonly found in Kansas. According to the Cleveland Clinic, brown recluse spiders are typically not aggressive toward humans, and their bite is usually painless at the moment it occurs. In most cases, a bite produces only a red, itchy reaction that resolves without serious complications. However, if left untreated, a brown recluse bite can progress to bruising, blistering, an open sore and lasting scarring. In rare and severe cases, symptoms can include rash, fever, dizziness, vomiting and chills, alongside more serious systemic effects, particularly in individuals with preexisting health vulnerabilities such as compromised organ function or clotting disorders, conditions that closely mirror those Miller was already managing before the bite occurred.

Practical Precautions

For those looking to avoid similar encounters, Cloyd advised sealing cracks and gaps around homes and outdoor structures, and exercising caution when handling boxes, shoes and other items that have gone undisturbed for extended periods, common hiding spots for spiders such as the brown recluse.

A Family Leaning on Community Support

As Miller continues her recovery, her family has turned to a GoFundMe campaign to help offset the costs associated with her extended hospitalization and ongoing medical needs. In an update shared through the campaign, the family expressed hope for better days ahead, writing that although there remains a long road ahead, they are holding on to hope that this season will eventually be behind them and that Miller will be able to return fully to the roles she cherishes most, being a mother now, and someday a grandmother.

Fox News Digital reported it was unable to immediately reach the Miller family for additional comment. As Miller works toward eligibility for a liver transplant, her case has drawn renewed attention to the potential severity of spider bites, particularly for individuals with underlying health conditions that can complicate what might otherwise be a minor, self-resolving injury for most healthy people.

Andy Burnham will tell firms bidding for public contracts to prove they are creating jobs rather than meeting green and social targets in a bid to get more people into work.

The prime minister will overhaul the £90bn public procurement system so bidders have to show they are supporting young people into work and addressing local skills shortages.

It comes as the government seeks to tackle the youth unemployment crisis, with Burnham saying he wants to create “growth in every postcode”.

But green groups criticised the plans, arguing supporting young people into work should not come at the expense of the environment.

Companies bidding for government contracts are judged on a range of measures, including value for money and the extent to which they bring benefits to the local community.

Under the changes, the weighting given to the benefits brought by companies will be doubled, from 10% to 20% for contracts worth £5m or more, the Cabinet Office said.

Previously, this accounted for how companies created social value through measures such as equality and diversity, net zero and the post-Covid recovery.

The new 20% measure will instead be based on job creation. Bidders will be given extra credit for creating local jobs paying above the minimum wage, plugging local skills gaps by offering training and particularly by offering 45-day work experience placements for young people.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show more than a million people aged 16 to 24 are currently not in education, employment or training (Neet).

Burnham used a similar initiative to oversee a rise in the latter during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.

First Secretary of State Louise Haigh — who is effectively Burnham’s deputy prime minister — said the procurement process in its current form was a “tick-box exercise”.

“Every pound of taxpayer money should be spent in a way that benefits local communities — creating good jobs and giving young people the skills they need for the future,” she said.

The new model will apply to both British and international firms bidding for public contracts.

Haigh said: “These new rules will ensure the £90 billion that is spent each year through government contracts supports British jobs, skills and people in every postcode.”

Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson said that businesses who secure government contracts “have a responsibility to give back”.

“Businesses that benefit from the billions of taxpayer pounds spent by government, will have to create more local jobs and opportunities for young people in their area,” he said.

But Greenpeace UK’s head of politics Ami McCarthy said protecting the environment and helping young people into work are “mutually beneficial and one shouldn’t come at a cost to the other”.

“Companies should be held to account with environmental targets to help achieve a better future without leaving young workers behind,” she added.

Companies in the private sector added 44,000 jobs in July, payroll processing firm ADP said in its latest report on Wednesday.

The figure is below economists’ estimates of a gain of 70,000 jobs and down from the prior month’s revised 95,000 payrolls figure.

“Job-changers are highly sensitive to real-time economic conditions, and their rapid pay growth implies supply constraints in parts of the labor market,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist. “Typical hiring patterns, meanwhile, are changing as employers react to shifting macro-economic conditions.”

THE COLLEGES THAT GIVE GRADUATES THE STRONGEST CAREER EDGE, ACCORDING TO LINKEDIN

Which industries are hiring the most workers, according to the ADP report?

Education and health services added 36,000 positions, leading job creation in July. Financial activities added 10,000, professional and business services gained 9,000, and other services added 6,000.

US WORKERS INCREASINGLY TRAPPED IN THE ‘GREAT DETACHMENT’ AS HIRING SLOWS, REPORT SHOWS

Information added 5,000 jobs, while manufacturing construction added 2,000 and 1,000 positions, respectively. 

On the negative side, leisure and hospitality lost 11,000 jobs, trade, transportation and utilities lost 8,000, and natural resources and mining lost 6,000.

Large businesses – those with 500 or more employees – gained 13,000 jobs in July. Businesses with 50 to 499 employees gained 8,000 workers. Establishments with fewer than 50 employees gained 23,000 jobs.

SOUTHERN CITIES DOMINATE RANKINGS OF BEST JOB MARKETS FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADUATES

People staying in their roles saw their pay climb 4.4% from the prior year, while pay gains for those changing their jobs accelerated to 7% – the largest year-over-year increase since August 2025.

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Shares of Sterlite Technologies and HFCL rallied 5% each on Wednesday following reports that the US administration is considering a ban on Chinese data centre equipment imports. Sterlite Technologies touched a day’s high of Rs 636, while HFCL climbed to Rs 212.

According to a Reuters report, the Trump administration is drafting a ban on US imports of new models of Chinese data centre components, citing four people familiar with the matter. The move is aimed at protecting the infrastructure supporting the rapid growth of artificial intelligence.

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The report further said that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the US telecom industry, is working on a measure to bar imports of new Chinese optical transceivers. These components enable data to travel over fibre-optic cables at the speed of light within data centres.

The move, which has not been previously reported, aims to prevent Chinese firms from stealing data, installing malware or disrupting services at US data centres that house the chips used to train and run AI models.

Reuters reported that the FCC could still modify or shelve the proposed restriction, with sources speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter. However, the move marks another effort by the Trump administration to limit Chinese technological influence in critical US industries before such products become embedded in supply chains.
“Transceivers definitely pose a risk. As the data centre buildout scales up, you want to make sure the data centre supply chain is secure from the get-go,” said Divyansh Kaushik, an AI policy expert at Washington, DC-based advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies.In an exchange filing on Tuesday, HFCL said its board has approved a further expansion of its optical fibre and optical fibre cable manufacturing capacities, with a total capital outlay of around Rs 400 crore. The expansion will be funded through an appropriate mix of internal accruals and debt, as required.

HFCL said the decision was supported by its strong order book for optical fibre cable (OFC) and optical connectivity products, a robust pipeline of additional business opportunities, and a favourable long-term global demand outlook.

The company added that demand is being driven by rising investments in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, hyperscale data centres, cloud computing, high-performance computing, 5G deployments, FTTH and broadband expansion, enterprise fibreisation, rural connectivity initiatives and telecom network modernisation programmes.

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This proposed expansion is in addition to the company’s ongoing expansion programme. The board has now approved an additional capacity expansion of 4.60 million fkm per annum in optical fibre (OF) and 14.0 million fkm per annum in optical fibre cable (OFC) capacities. Upon completion of these expansion programmes, HFCL’s total OF manufacturing capacity will increase to 38.50 million fkm per annum, while OFC manufacturing capacity will rise to 56.36 million fkm per annum.

The proposed expansion is expected to be completed by July 2028. It is aimed at helping the company cater to rising demand for OFC and optical connectivity products across domestic and international markets, while addressing requirements from existing customer commitments, a healthy order book and an expanding business pipeline.

The Reuters report also highlighted that such a ban could increase costs for US cloud firms such as Amazon Web Services, as they may have to shift to alternative suppliers, including US-based Coherent and Lumentum.

Earlier, the FCC had imposed similar curbs on Chinese drones, routers, robots and inverters.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The sale of gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) for $55bn (£41bn) to a group of buyers including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been finalised.

The American company is known for making and publishing best-selling games such as EA FC, formerly known as Fifa, The Sims and Mass Effect.

The investors, who include Affinity Partners – led by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – are taking EA private, meaning all of its public shares will be purchased and it will no longer be traded on a stock exchange.

It is thought to be the largest leveraged buyout in history, meaning a significant part of it is paid for with borrowed money, which the company will have to pay back.

This is because as well as the $36bn it has already put into the deal, PIF needs to borrow $20bn from investment bankers JPMorgan to close it, with the business taking on the debt.

How paying back this debt will affect EA as a business has been the source of much speculation from journalists and analysts.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier surmised it could lead to “mass layoffs, more aggressive monetization, and other big cost-cutting measures, external“, for one of the industry’s biggest companies.

Christopher Dring, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Game Business, said the nature of the buyout, external was also likely to mean “a very hands-on approach from the investment group”.

“Private equity firms are typically aggressive in their management of companies,” he said.

Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios – an independent studio which worked with publishers Sony to make the record-breaking Helldivers 2 – told the BBC that EA has traditionally been seen as having a wide portfolio of games, from blockbusters to smaller indie titles.

“This deal is consolidation, no question – and I wonder whether new ownership optimises for the safe bet – more sequels, more mega-franchises – over that breadth,” he said.

“I’m hopeful this leads to more of that range, not less, but if it turns EA into a sequel-and-mega-franchise machine, that’s a real waste of one of the best catalogues in the industry.”