Endeavour Silver Drills 11.1 Metres of 179 g/t Silver Equivalent at Palmilla Mine

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 15, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Endeavour Silver Corp. (NYSE:EXK) (TSX: EDR) announces that exploration drilling on the Parral property in Chihuahua State, Mexico has discovered potential bulk tonnage silver mineralization within the Palmilla-Capuzaya-La Luz veins in the Palmilla mine area.

Palmilla was an historic high grade silver mine which provided silver to the Mexican mint in the late 1800’s.  While most of the narrow, high grade ores were mined out from underground workings located on and immediately south of the Parral property, Endeavour drilling has outlined lower grade, bulk tonnage mineralization above and along strike of the old workings that may be amenable to open pit mining.

Thirty two drill holes totaling 6,370 metres (m) of core were drilled to test the Palmilla mine area (view maps here). The drill holes were spaced at approximately 50 m centres along two main mineralized structures over an area 550 m long by 250 m wide by 150 m deep.

Drilling highlights include 11.1 m (36.4 feet (ft)) true width grading 154 grams per tonne (gpt) silver, 0.36 gpt gold, 0.07% lead and 0.23% zinc (179 gpt silver equivalent (AgEq) or 5.8 oz per tonne (opt) AgEq) in hole PAL-02.  Other highlights include two intercepts of 11.0 m (36.1 ft) assaying 118 gpt silver, 0.60 gpt gold, 0.15% lead and 0.22% zinc (160 gpt AgEq or 5.1 opt AgEq) and 15.1 m (49.5 ft) running 114 gpt silver, 0.2 gpt gold, 0.22% lead and 0.33% zinc (128 gpt AgEq or 4.1 opt AgEq) in hole PAL-13.

Results for the 24 top drill intercepts are summarized in the table below.

Silver equivalents are calculated at a ratio of 70:1 silver: gold, excluding base metals and expected recoveries

Luis Castro, Vice President of Exploration for Endeavour Silver, commented, “Our discovery of potential bulk tonnage silver-gold-lead-zinc mineralization in the Palmilla mine area, that may be amenable to open pit mining, is an exciting new development for the Parral district in general and our property in particular.”

“It gives us a second mineralized area with resource potential to complement the Veta Colorada area where we have already verified a portion of the historic high grade silver resource (see news release dated October 24, 2017). 

“Drilling continues on the Parral property in a third mineralized area known as the San Patricio vein which lies to the north of Palmilla.  A new resource estimate for the Parral property will be prepared at year-end for release in the 1st quarter of 2018.”

Godfrey Walton, M.Sc., P.Geo., Endeavour’s President and COO, is the Qualified Person who reviewed and approved this news release and supervised the drilling programs in Mexico. A Quality Control sampling program of reference standards, blanks and duplicates is used to monitor the integrity of all assay results. All samples are split at the local 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.

About Endeavour Silver - Endeavour Silver is a mid-tier precious metals mining company that owns three high grade, underground, silver-gold mines in Mexico. Since start‑up in 2004, Endeavour has grown its mining operations organically to produce 9.7 million ounces of silver and equivalents in 2016. We find, build and operate quality silver mines in a sustainable way to create real value for all stakeholders. Endeavour Silver’s shares trade on the TSX (EDR) and the NYSE (EXK).