Endeavour triples silver tally at Guanacevi (March 09, 2007)

Vancouver – Following last years drill effort, Endeavour Silver (EDR-T, EXK-X) has significantly boosted silver reserves at its Guanacevi Mines project in northwestern Durango State, Mexico.

The study tabled a 285% increase in proven and probable reserves, since March 2006, to 608,308 tonnes grading 508 grams silver per tonne equating to about 9.9 million contained oz. of silver. Reserves are contained within four separate zones at Guanacevi.

Additionally, indicated resources of 2 million tonnes at 327 grams silver were also reviewed in the estimate for about 21 million contained oz. of silver. A further 1 million inferred tonnes grading 323 grams silver holds about 10 million contained oz. of silver.

Resource estimates were based on minimum mining width of 1.5 metres and a 200 gram silver cut-off grade.

Endeavour also reported about 571,000 contained oz. of silver in stockpiles at last years end.

“We set an aggressive resource target of 20 to 30 million oz. for the Guanacevi Mines Project,” stated Endeavour chairman and CEO Bradford Cooke. “I am very pleased to say that, once again, our talented exploration team beat that target.”

Endeavour forecasts 2006 silver output from Guanacevi of about 1.35-million oz. then rising to the 3-million oz. level in 2007. Cash production costs for last year are expected to come in around US$5.00 per oz., dropping to the US$4.00 per oz. level for 2007.

“Reserves and resources at Guanacevi now total 41 million oz., well in excess of the 10 year mine life,” continued Cooke.

An upgrade and expansion push saw the company recently installing a new 600-tonne-per-day ball mill to boost throughput. It also recently replaced a mining contractor at the Porvenir mine, opting for company-employed miners, and ordered about US$3.5 million in new equipment for its planned mining rate increase.

Endeavour Silver optioned Guanacevi in mid-2004 from a local company that owned the plant and from the stakeholders of the Santa Cruz mine. Convinced of its growth potential, development of the North Porvenir zone was fast tracked in 2005 to initiate a revenue stream in conjunction with exploration drilling.

Mineralization is typical of that throughout Mexicos Sierra Madre belt, being low sulphidation epithermal vein hosted. Quartz-carbonate veins occur mainly in a Tertiary Lower Volcanic sequence of andesites and volcaniclastics overlain by an Upper Volcanic sequence of rhyolites.

In the Guanacevi area, an erosional window has exposed the Lower Volcanics plus sections of an older, underlying conglomerate unit. The Santa Cruz vein system occurs along the western edge of a horst structure, paralleling the lower volcanic-conglomerate contact. Mineralized veins have also been discovered within the conglomerate.

Silver mineralization occurs primarily as argentite plus acanthite with also some gold, galena, sphalerite, pyrite and manganese oxides.

Official production records for the region pegs silver output in the order of about 500 million oz. from several dozen mines, placing the Guanacevi area as one of the top five producing districts in Mexico.

Endeavour Silver shares closed around the $5.00-level following the reserve and resource update to give the company a $214-million market capitalization based on its 42.7-million shares outstanding. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $2.60-to-$5.92.