COEUR d'ALENE - Hecla Mining Co. announced Monday that the Lucky Friday mine's preliminary third-quarter production reached 973,000 ounces of silver.

That is an increase of 103 percent compared with the year-earlier quarter for the Mullan-area silver mine, and reflects the effect of the mine now operating at full-production levels.

Silver production for the third quarter, ending Sept. 30, was 19 percent higher than the second quarter.

With the preliminary third-quarter results, Hecla now expects annual silver production at Lucky Friday to be between 3 million and 3.2 million ounces in 2014.

"All three of our mines performed strongly in the third quarter, reporting higher production of silver, gold, lead and zinc over the prior year, and we expect 2014 silver production to be at the high end of our previous guidance of 9.5 million to 10 million ounces," said Phillips S. Baker Jr., Hecla's president and CEO.

Along with Lucky Friday, the company operates the Greens Creek silver mine in Alaska and the Casa Berardi gold mine in Quebec, Canada.

"During the quarter we continued to advance our capital projects, including the No. 4 Shaft at Lucky Friday, focused our exploration in Mexico and made the final payment of our superfund settlement, and still ended the quarter with about $222 million in cash, unchanged from the end of the second quarter," Baker said.

The No. 4 Shaft, a key growth project at Lucky Friday, has now been excavated to the 7,500-foot level. Work continues on the shaft station at that level.

The No. 4 Shaft project is now more than 73 percent complete, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2016. The total cost of the project is $215 million.