Dual-listed Endeavour Silver is forecasting better performance from its operating mines in 2020, with a slight decrease in consolidated production owing to the suspension of mining at El Cubo.

Operating costs at Guanacevi, Bolanitos and El Compas should decline through the year as productivity improves, CEO Bradford Cooke has indicated.

The company on Friday released its 2020 production and cost guidance for its three silver/gold mines in Mexico, the Guanacevi mine in Durango state, the Bolanitos mine in Guanajuato state and the El Compas mine in Zacatecas state; as well as its 2020 capital and exploration budgets for the three mines and several exploration and development projects.

In 2020, silver production is expected to range from 3.0-million to 3.5-million ounces and gold production is anticipated be in the 38 000 oz to 44 000 oz range.

Silver equivalent production is forecast to total 6.0-million to 7.0-million ounces using a 80:1 silver:gold ratio.

The miner last year produced 4.0-million ounces of silver and 38 907 oz of gold, for silver equivalent production of 7.1-million ounces.

Consolidated cash cost and all-in sustaining cost in 2020 are both estimated to be significantly lower than in 2019, at about $6.00/oz to 7.00/oz of silver and $17.00/oz to 18.00/oz of silver, net of gold by-product credits respectively.

Metal price assumptions for 2020 are $17/oz silver and $1 450/oz gold.

The Guanacevi mine is expected to be the largest producer this year, as the newly developed Milache, SCS and P4E orebodies continue to scale up to fill the 1 200 t/d plant to capacity by the end of the first quarter, Cooke indicated.

“Bolanitos production is still recovering from a lack of ore access due to the arsenic issue last year, but the development of new areas in the Plateros, Lucero and San Miguel orebodies is expected to fill the 1 250 t/d plant to capacity in half two 2020.

“El Compas is now a steady state operation running at close to the current plant capacity of 250 t/d and will post its first full year of production in 2020,” he informed.

In 2020, Endeavour plans to invest $32.6-million on capital projects primarily as sustaining capital at the three operating mines, and $1.8-million in growth capital to maintain the exploration concessions and cover corporate infrastructure.

At current metal prices, the sustaining capital investments will be covered by operating cash flow and current cash.

In 2020, Endeavour plans to spend $5.4-million drilling 18 500 m of core on brownfield projects, greenfield exploration and development engineering across its portfolio of mines and properties.

At the three operating mines, 10 500 m of core drilling is planned, at a cost of $2.0-million, to replace reserves and expand resources.

On the exploration and development projects, expenditures of $3.4-million are planned to fund 8 000 m of core drilling, advance engineering studies at Terronera and Parral, and drill the Paloma gold project in Chile, where initial exploration results were noted as very encouraging.

The company’s 2019 fourth quarter and year-end consolidated financial results will be released before market on Monday, February 24.