COEUR d'ALENE - Net income dropped off dramatically in the fourth quarter for Hecla Mining Co., shrinking to $605,000 compared with $18.4 million in the year-earlier quarter, the company announced Monday.

Net income for all of 2012 was $14.4 million for the Coeur d'Alene-based company.

This past year, with the Lucky Friday silver mine in Mullan down, the Greens Creek mine in Alaska produced enough silver and cash flow to allow Hecla to make record levels of capital investment. Those investments are expected to help generate higher silver production this year.

"For the full year (in 2012), the company produced 6.4 million ounces of silver at a cash cost of $2.70 per ounce, still among the lowest costs and highest margins of the major primary silver producers," Phillips S. Baker Jr., Hecla's president and chief executive officer, said in a press release.

Baker said this year the company expects silver production levels to increase more than 25 percent to approximately 8 to 9 million ounces. The company said it expects to reach full silver production levels at Lucky Friday mine in the third quarter of this year.

The company spent $118.2 million last year on capital investment, including $36.6 million for the fourth quarter.

The investments included $29.8 million last year for rehabilitation of the main access shaft at the Lucky Friday silver mine. The company invested another $26.2 million for other work at the Mullan mine.

The company invested $62.2 million at the Greens Creek mine in Alaska.

The company said it expects to spend $51.5 million this year on exploration and pre-development expenses.

"Our pre-development projects continue to advance toward a planned company-wide goal to produce 15 million ounces of silver production in 2017," Baker said.