Endeavour Silver Reports 600Moz Silver Resources at La Pitarrilla

The Canada-based silver company Endeavour Silver announced that its recently acquired La Pitarrilla project shows significant mineral estimates, which Endeavour expects will add value to investors. The company said that the estimated 600Moz silver resources are proof of the economic viability of what the industry believed was an underdeveloped mining deposit.

According to Dan Dickson, CEO, Endeavour Silver, these results validate the merits of acquiring the project, which he considers to be the world’s largest underdeveloped silver project.

The report showed that the Pitarrilla project has indicated mineral resources of over 158.6 million tons, of which 429.6Moz are silver grading 96.4g/t, 1.1 billion lbs are lead grading at 0.31 percent and 2.6 billion lbs are zinc grading 0.74 percent. The project in sum reported over 693.Moz of silver equivalent grading 136g/t.

Similarly, the inferred mineral resource totaled 35.4 million tons, containing 99.5Moz of silver grading 87.2g/t, 281 million lbs of lead grading 0.36 percent, 661 million lbs of zinc grading 0.85 percent, totaling 151.2 Moz of silver equivalent grading 13 g/t. 

Dickson said that through historic drilling, the Pitarrilla project has benefitted from around 225,000m of drilling and advanced to a pre-feasibility study of an underground operation, as well as an open-pit feasibility study in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Both studies were conducted by the project’s previous owner, SSR Mining. “The comprehensive work done to date, combined with the size and scale of the deposit, provides flexibility and versatility to various mining scenarios. We used the data collected to guide our exploration path going forward, with the potential to add significant value to the company,” Dickson added. 

The Pitarrilla project is an underdeveloped silver-lead-zinc project located 160km north of Durango city. It combines 4,950ha divided into five mining concessions and features good land connectivity and public services. In July 2022, SRR Mining sold the project to Endeavour Silver for US$70 million and a royalty of 1.25 percent over the net smelting value. During that time, Endeavour Silver said that the acquisition represented a great opportunity for the company’s regional team in Mexico that will increase its value along with other important projects in the region like Terronera and Parral.