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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/30/13 -- Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX: EDR)(NYSE: EXK)(FRANKFURT: EJD) announces that it is forecasting its ninth consecutive year of production growth for 2013. The Company owns and operates three underground, silver-gold mines in Mexico, the Guanacevi Mine in Durango State and the Bolanitos and El Cubo Mines in Guanajuato State.
Production Outlook
Endeavour's silver production in 2013 is forecast to rise 12-18% to 5.0-5.3 million ounces (oz) and gold production is anticipated to increase 19-27% to 46,000-49,000 oz as shown in the table below. Silver equivalent production is expected to climb 14-22% to 7.3-7.8 million oz (at a silver:gold ratio of 50:1).
Silver Gold Production Production Tonnes per DayMine (Moz) (Koz) (tpd)---------------------------------------------------------------------------Guanacevi 2.4-2.5 6.5-7.0 1250-1350Bolanitos 1.7-1.8 25.0-26.0 1500-1650El Cubo 0.9-1.0 14.5-16.0 1050-1200Total 5.0-5.3 46.0-49.0 3800-4200---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradford Cooke, CEO of Endeavour, commented, "Our recently acquired El Cubo mine will drive this year's production growth. Endeavour's current focus is on completing the main El Cubo mine and plant capital projects on time and budget in Q2, 2013, continuing the operational turn-around now well underway at El Cubo and honing our operational costs and efficiencies at Guanacevi and Guanajuato."
"For that reason, the Company is not forecasting any additional production growth at the Guanacevi and Bolanitos mines in 2013, although we will evaluate certain opportunities to expand the production in 2013. Once the El Cubo capital projects are completed, management will turn its attention to growth opportunities at the other two mines and elsewhere."
"Our strategy to acquire under-performing mines in historic districts for their turn-around and expansion potential does entail a certain amount of 'short term pain' but our track record shows it can create exceptional 'long term gain'. I would like to thank our shareholders for their patience during this turn-around period at El Cubo."
The main opportunity to expand 2013 production is at Bolanitos, where the plant is currently operating at its 1600 tpd capacity but the mines have operated over the last two months at 1800 tpd to build up the ore stockpiles. The Bolanitos mines are actually capable of producing up to 2200 tpd with the current employees, contractors and equipment and that is the opportunity management is now evaluating.
The El Cubo leased plant currently has 800 tpd of unused capacity and the El Cubo owned plant now under reconstruction will have 400 tpd of unused capacity upon completion. Endeavour is currently negotiating to sell to smelters on commercially attractive terms the extra silver-gold concentrates that would be generated by processing extra Bolanitos ores through the El Cubo plants.
