Endeavour to Decrease Silver Production in 2016

Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX:EDR,NYSE:EXK) released 2016 production and cost guidance for its three producing mines in Mexico. Overall, the company is planning to lower its silver output “in order to achieve a substantially lower all-in sustaining cost of production and generate free cash flow.”
The press release states:

Endeavour’s mine plans for 2016 are focused on minimizing all-in sustaining costs and improving after-tax free cash flow rather than metal output. Silver production is expected to be in the range of 4.9-5.3 million oz, gold production will be in the 47,000-52,000 oz range, and silver equivalent production is forecast to be 7.9-8.5 million oz using a 75:1 silver:gold ratio, as shown in the table below.

Brad Cooke, CEO of Endeavour Silver, commented:

Our Guanaceví and Bolañitos mines continue to be profitable at current metal prices but the El Cubo mine continues to lose money in spite of our successful efforts to expand the operation and reduce cash operating and all-in sustaining costs three years in a row. Therefore, we plan to mine the accessible reserves this year at El Cubo and have suspended investments on exploration and mine development there until metal prices improve. That means El Cubo will see a steady decline of production through the year until it goes on care and maintenance in the fourth quarter.
The exciting new Terronera silver-gold mine property in Jalisco State has great upside potential. In 2016 we plan to continue aggressively exploring and engineering this project to significantly enhance the economics at current metal prices. We will therefore delay the pre-feasibility study until this next phase of evaluation is completed later this year. We will also continue to focus on M&A opportunities to take advantage of these low metal prices and acquire an accretive new mine and/or development project.

Click here to read the full Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX:EDR,NYSE:EXK) press release.