Note 5. Employee Benefit Plans

We sponsor defined benefit pension plans covering all non-hourly U.S. employees hired prior to July 2024 and our hourly workers at the Lucky Friday mine, as well as a Supplemental Excess Retirement Plan ("SERP") covering certain eligible employees.

For the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, the service cost component of net periodic pension cost is included in the same line items of our condensed consolidated financial statements as other employee compensation costs. For the three months

ended March 31, 2026, the net benefit related to all other components of net periodic pension cost of $0.8 million (2025: $0.8 million), is included in other income on our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income.

Note 7: Employee Benefit Plans

Pensions and Other Post-retirement Plans

We sponsor defined benefit pension plans covering substantially all U.S. employees and a Supplemental Excess Retirement Plan (“SERP”) covering certain eligible employees. During July 2024, we closed the Hecla Mining Company Retirement Plan for Employees

(the “Hecla Plan”) to new participants. The closure of the Hecla Plan does not affect employees hired prior to July 19, 2024, and they will continue to accrue benefits. Benefits to retirees will continue unchanged.

The assets of the SERP are recorded in investments in the consolidated balance sheet as these are held in a Rabbi Trust and not classified as Plan Assets. An out-of-period correction was made to reclassify the SERP assets to non-current investments.

The above assumptions were calculated based on information as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, the measurement dates for the plans. The discount rate is based on the yield curve for investment-grade corporate bonds as published by the U.S. Treasury Department. The expected rate of return on plan assets is based upon consideration of the plan’s current asset mix, historical long-term return rates and the plan’s historical performance. Our current assumption for the rate on plan assets is 7.25%. The vested benefit obligation is determined based on the actuarial present value of benefits to which employees are currently entitled, based on employees' expected date of separation or retirement.

The service cost component of net periodic pension cost is included in the same line items of our consolidated financial statements as other employee compensation costs. The net cost (benefit) of $0.3 million, ($3.9) million and ($4.1) million for 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively, related to all other components of net periodic pension cost is included in other income on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).

Each defined benefit pension plan's statement of investment policy delineates the responsibilities of the board, the committee which administers the plan, the investment manager(s), and investment adviser/consultant, and provides guidelines on investment management. Investment objectives are established for each of the asset categories included in the pension plans with comparisons of performance against appropriate benchmarks. Each plan's policy calls for investments to be supervised by qualified investment managers. The investment managers are monitored on an ongoing basis by our outside consultant, with formal reporting to us and the consultant performed each quarter. The policy sets forth the following allocation of assets:

Each defined benefit pension plan's statement of investment policy and objectives aspires to achieve the assumed long term rate of return on plan assets established by the plan’s actuary plus one percent.

Accounting guidance has established a hierarchy of assets measured at fair value on a recurring basis. The three levels included in the hierarchy are:

Level 1: quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities

Level 2: significant other observable inputs

Level 3: significant unobservable inputs

Common stock investments included investments in Hecla common stock as of December 31, 2025 of $18.5 million (2024: $18.9 million) for the Hecla Plan and $3.0 million (2024: $2.9 million) for the Lucky Friday retirement plan.

Generally, investments are valued based on information provided by fund managers to each plan's trustee as reviewed by management and its investment advisers. Mutual funds and equities are valued based on available exchange data. Commingled equity funds consist of publicly-traded investments.

Fair value for real estate funds, hedge funds and common collective equity funds is measured using the net asset value per share (or its equivalent) practical expedient (“NAV”), and has not been categorized in the fair value hierarchy. There are no unfunded commitments related to these investments. There are no restrictions on redemptions of these funds as of December 31, 2025, except as limited by the redemption terms discussed below. The following summarizes information on the asset classes measured using NAV:

The last time we made a contribution to the plans was during 2023 in the form of $0.2 million in shares of our common stock contributed to the Hecla Plan, respectively. We do not expect to be required to contribute to our defined benefit plans in 2026, but we may choose to do so.

Except for a limited number of employees who participate in the SERP, non-U.S. employees are not eligible to participate in the defined benefit pension plans that we maintain for U.S. employees. Canadian employees participate in Canada's public retirement income system, which includes the following components: (i) the Canada (or Quebec) Pension Plan, which is an employee and employer contributory, earnings-related social insurance program, and (ii) the Old Age Security program. Mexican employees participate in Mexico's public retirement income system, which is based on contributions the employee, employer and the government submit to the retirement savings system. The system is administered through savings accounts managed by private fund managers selected by the participant.

Capital Accumulation Plans

Our Capital Accumulation Plan ("401(k) plan") is available to all U.S. salaried and certain hourly employees upon employment. We make a matching contribution in the form of cash or stock of 100% of an employee’s contribution up to 6% of eligible earnings. Our matching contributions, all in Hecla common stock, were $5.1 million, $4.8 million and $4.6 million in 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

We also maintain a 401(k) plan that is available to all hourly employees at Lucky Friday upon employment. When an employee meets eligibility requirements we make a matching cash contribution of 100% of the employee’s contribution up to, but not exceeding, 6% of the employee’s eligible earnings. Our matching contributions were $1.9 million, $1.6 million and $1.3 million in 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.