In 2012, cash costs associated with mining at El Cubo were $35.27 per ounce of silver equivalent. Endeavour claims that their cash costs per ounce will be significantly lower in 2013. They had better be, otherwise this mine is losing money!
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – Sept. 11, 2013) – Endeavour Silver Corp. (NYSE:EXK) (TSX:EDR) announced today that exploration drilling at the Company’s El Cubo mine in Guanajuato State, Mexico has intersected high grade gold-silver mineralization in two veins near historic mine workings in the Asunción area of the Villalpando vein system.
The veins that were intersected are low-sulphidation epithermal veins. Mineralization within epithermal veins can occur within vertical intervals of a few hundred metres, within vein thicknesses of 1-2m and lengths of up to several hundred metres.
Drilling intersected strong mineralization in both the Villalpando vein and the Asunción vein. Drilling highlights include 375 grams per tonne (gpt) silver and 1.80 gpt gold over 4.14 metres (m) true width, or 14.1 ounces per ton (opT) silver equivalents over 13.6 feet (ft), in hole CAS-6, including 768 gpt silver and 2.69 gpt gold over 0.49 m true width, or 27.1 opT silver equivalents over 1.6 ft.
The “including” intervals are thin and could only be mined (without significant dilution) using traditional hand methods. This would reduce the production rate and raise costs associated with mining personnel. All the more reason to ignore these thin intervals in the table. Larger veins can be mined as whole by mechanical means, which makes for a cheaper operation.
El Cubo Drilling Highlights
| Hole | Structure | From | True Width | Au | Ag | Ag Eq. |
| (m) | (m) | (gpt) | (gpt) | (gpt) | ||
| CAS-06 | Villalpando | 335.20 | 4.14 | 1.80 | 375 | 483 |
| CAS-08 | Villalpando | 271.80 | 1.62 | 0.60 | 330 | 366 |
| CAS-09 | Villalpando | 350.45 | 1.67 | 1.59 | 168 | 263 |
| CAS-10 | Villalpando | 350.90 | 1.72 | 1.20 | 136 | 208 |
| CAS-12 | Villalpando | 204.10 | 5.16 | 0.61 | 122 | 159 |
| CAS-04 | Asunción | 373.20 | 1.84 | 1.29 | 126 | 203 |
| CAS-10 | Asunción | 331.90 | 1.73 | 1.59 | 249 | 344 |
Click here to view the Villalpando-Asunción Longitudinal Sections. Silver equivalents are calculated at a ratio of 60:1 silver:gold.
Additionally, consider that there is still much uncertainty in future gold prices with corresponding uncertainty over all precious metals including silver. Any further falls in silver price would be unwelcome by most silver miners and could make marginal mines unprofitable overnight.
The new mineralized zones extend about 200 m long by 100 m deep, and have already been accessed by an underground crosscut from the historic workings. Fast track mine development is now underway to better define these mineralized veins and exploration drilling is expected to resume this month.
Luis Castro, Vice President of Exploration, commented, “The discovery of these two mineralized veins near the historic Asunción mine workings at El Cubo represents our first exploration success since acquiring the El Cubo mine last year, and validates our view that the exploration potential for new discoveries at El Cubo is very high.”
Godfrey Walton, M.Sc., P.Geo. President and COO, is the Qualified Person who reviewed and approved this news release and supervised the drilling programs at El Cubo. A Quality Control sampling program of reference standards, blanks and duplicates has been instituted to monitor the integrity of all assay results. All samples were split at the El Cubo field office and shipped to ALS-Chemex Labs, where they are dried, crushed, split and 50 gram pulp samples are prepared for analysis. Gold and silver are determined by fire assay with an atomic absorption (AA) finish. Other elements are determined by AA.
About Endeavour Silver – Endeavour is a mid-tier silver mining company focused on growing its profits, production, reserves and resources in Mexico. Since start-up in 2004, Endeavour has posted eight consecutive years of accretive growth of its silver mining operations. The organic expansion programs now underway at Endeavour’s three silver-gold mines in Mexico combined with its strategic acquisition and exploration programs should facilitate Endeavour’s goal to become a premier senior silver producer.
