Endeavour Silver Reports Production for Second Quarter
VANCOUVER, BC - Endeavour Silver Corp. reported that silver production for the Second Quarter, 2009 from the Company's two operating silver mines in Mexico, Guanacevi in Durango State and Guanajuato in Guanajuato State, totalled 578,641 ounces (oz) silver, up 12% over Q2, 2008.
Gold production rose sharply in the Second Quarter, 2009, up 61% to 2,750 oz compared to Q2, 2008, resulting in silver-equivalent production rising 21% to 762,891 oz compared to Q2, 2008 (assuming a 67:1 silver:gold ratio based on average Second Quarter, 2009 gold/silver prices - base metals not included as silver-equivalents).
At Guanacevi, Q2, 2009 production totalled 411,617 oz silver from 53,936 tonnes (567 tonnes per day) grading 311 grams per tonne (gpt) silver and 0.64 gpt gold (11.4 oz per ton (opT) silver-equivalent), with metal recoveries into dore bars averaging 77.1% for silver and 86.2% gold. At Guanajuato, Q2, 2009 production amounted to 167,023 oz silver from 36,402 tonnes (466 tpd based on a 6 day week) grading 183 gpt silver and 1.93 gpt gold (10.0 opT silver-equivalent), and metal recoveries into dore bars averaged 77.5% for silver and 84.3% for gold.
Endeavour forecasts its silver production growth will accelerate in the Third and Fourth Quarters of 2009 as this year's capital expansion programs are completed, the new Alex Breccia and Porvenir Dos mines are opened in Guanacevi and the new Lucero mine expands its production at Guanajuato. The Company's capital programs and silver production at the Guanacevi Mines project are slightly behind schedule for the First Half, 2009 (H1) as a result of the 6 day shut-down by Presidential decree in May due to the H1N1 virus, and several unexpected outages on the local power grid that have caused some delays in dewatering the access ramps being driven into the North Porvenir and Santa Cruz ore-bodies.
A plan was recently implemented to resolve the power and dewatering issues at Guanacevi and allow the ramp development to accelerate once again. The capital programs and silver production at the Guanajuato Mines project have already partly made up for the delays at Guanacevi as a result of processing higher grade ores from the Lucero and Cebada mines.
Bradford Cooke, Chairman and CEO, stated, "Endeavour enjoyed another strong quarter of production growth in Q2, 2009. In fact, the success enjoyed by our Guanajuato operations team in fast-tracking the new Lucero Vein discovery to production has prompted management to hire 10 new miners to accelerate the development of this exciting new discovery and approve a 20% plant expansion to 600 tonnes per day (tpd) in August. We are now evaluating an additional plant expansion to 800 tpd (1.5 to 2.0 million oz per year depending on grades and recoveries) for next year at Guanajuato."
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