Hecla to Acquire Aurizon Mines for C$796M

The Board of Directors of Aurizon Mines

("Aurizon" or the "Company") today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Hecla Mining Company

will acquire all of the outstanding diluted common shares of Aurizon for approximately CAD$796 million. The transaction will be implemented by way of a plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia).Under the terms of the Arrangement, Aurizon shareholders may elect to receive in exchange for each Aurizon Share, CAD$4.75 per share or 0.9953 of a Hecla share or a combination of both, subject in each case to pro-ration based on a maximum cash consideration of approximately CAD$513.6 million and a maximum of approximately 57,000,000 Hecla shares. Assuming that all shareholders elect to receive either cash or Hecla shares, the consideration will be fully pro-rated with each shareholder being entitled to receive CAD$3.11 in cash and 0.3446 of a Hecla share for each Aurizon share.The CAD$4.75 per share offer price represents an approximately 12% premium to the current implied CAD$4.26 per share value of the Alamos Offer based on the closing share price of Alamos Gold