Coeur d’Alene-based Hecla Mining Co. plans to issue more than 9 million shares of its common stock in anticipation of its pending acquisition of Mines Management Inc., of Spokane. A regulatory filing lists the potential stock offering price at $44.1 million.

Mines Management shareholders will vote next month about whether to approve the acquisition.

Based on the estimated number of outstanding shares of Mines Management common stock, Hecla says it expects to issue 9.1 million shares of Hecla common stock to Mines Management stockholders when the transaction is completed. Mines Management common stockholders would then own almost 2.4 percent of Hecla’s outstanding common stock, according to a recent joint press release from the two companies. 

Hecla announced in May it had agreed to acquire Mines Management. The transaction could be completed as early as the third quarter of 2016.

If shareholders vote in favor of the merger, Mines Management stockholders will receive 0.2218 of a share of Hecla common stock for each share of Mines Management common stock.

The special meeting and vote will be held in the second floor conference room of the Lincoln Building, 811 W. Riverside in downtown Spokane on Aug. 10. Mines Management is based in downtown Spokane. Mines Management cannot complete the merger unless its stockholders approve and adopt the merger proposal.

Hecla’s stockholders are not required to approve the proposed merger. 

If the merger is approved, Hecla says the company will then evaluate Mines Management’s Montanore project, which is located in northwestern Montana and is considered one of the largest underdeveloped silver and copper deposits in North America.

Earlier this week, Hecla announced it produced an estimated 4.2 million ounces of silver in this year’s second quarter, up 71 percent from the year-earlier quarter and on track for a record-setting year. The company produced nearly 63,000 ounces of gold, a 41 percent increase.

Last year, Hecla acquired another Spokane-area mining concern, Revett Mining Co. It completed its acquisition of Revett in June 2015 and took over its Rock Creek project then.

Last month, less than a year after loaning money to the Canadian mining company, Dolly Varden Silver Corp., Hecla has submitted a $12 million bid for that company.

The purchase would be for all outstanding shares of Dolly Varden currently not owned by Hecla or its affiliates. Attempts by the Journal to reach Dolly Varden officials have been unsuccessful.

In an interview last month with the Journal, Mike Westerlund, Hecla’s vice president, says the takeover bid was spurred by the company’s dissatisfaction with a recent loan arrangement made by Dolly Varden’s board of directors to pay back Hecla and another investor.

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dolly Varden is involved in exploring and developing silver projects in northwestern British Columbia. Dolly Varden properties are considered to be highly prospective for holding high-grade precious metal deposits.