Endeavour Silver Restarts Mining Operations in Mexico

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Endeavour Silver Corp. (NYSE: EXK) (TSX: EDR) announces that it has restarted mining operations at its three high-grade, underground silver-gold mines in Mexico.  The Company filed its mine operating and health plans with, and received approvals from, the Secretariat of Health in Mexico to recommence mining operations.

Management developed its mine restart plan utilizing the rigorous virus monitoring, prevention and response measures already in place at our three mines that comply with government mandated practices to ensure a safe working environment for all employees. 

At each site, Endeavour’s actions to protect its people, communities and business include:

• All employees and contractors reporting for duty undergo medical screening to verify that no one with COVID-19 symptoms or contact with anyone exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms gets on site.
• The Company has COVID-19 test kits available if our doctors recommend testing of employees, contractors or people in the local communities
• Social distancing and sanitation measures throughout each workplace and transport vehicles
• Education campaigns at the mines and within the communities to increase awareness
• Ongoing support to local communities with sanitation supplies and medical care
• Active management of the supply chain to reduce risk and increase inventory levels

The mines and plants are currently ramping up activities to achieve normal operations and exploration crews will restart mapping, sampling and drilling programs in June.  At each mine, the plants have started processing ore stockpiles in order to quickly ramp up to their capacities while the mines catch up on stope development and ore extraction.

At Guanacevi, plant personnel installed two rebuilt cone crushers during the suspension period to allow the plant to return to its 1,200 tonne per day (tpd) capacity in June. 

At Bolanitos, mine personnel are completing development of the San Miguel orebody over the next two months so that the plant can reach 1,100 tpd before the end of Q2, 2020.

At El Compas, the plant has commenced processing of the low-grade stockpile while the mine ramps up ore extraction to 250 tpd over the next month.

Bradford Cooke, Endeavour Director and CEO, commented, “Following the recent government decree that mining is now an essential activity, we are efficiently ramping up our mining operations in a safe and timely manner. Everyone is happy to be returning to work where our strict health and safety measures take care of our people and their communities.”