The company reported this week high-grade gold-silver intersections from the Santa Cruz vein at El Curso, where 12 of 18 drill holes had mineralisation over mineable widths. Highlights included 1,085 grams per tonne silver and 3.25g/t gold over 10m true width, 762g/t silver and 1.87 gold over 5.1, and 986g/t silver and 1.43g/t gold over 4.8m.

Endeavour said some results pointed to a northwest extension of the original P4 orebody into the El Curso ground, but most new holes were highlighted a mineralised zone west of the P4 extension and halfway to the company's Milache deposit. The new zone is currently estimated to be about 200m long and 300m in vertical extent.

Drilling stopped at the end of March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is expected to restart soon.

Endeavour outlined new resources at El Curso last year, before starting mining in the September quarter.

Meanwhile, Vangold Mining announced Tuesday it had processed a 1,000t bulk sample of material from its El Pinguico silver-gold project through Endeavour Silver's Bolanitos mill.

Results from sample testwork on surface stockpile material are expected to have implications for the company's higher-grade underground stockpile material, and for the project as a whole. Results are expected within two weeks.

This El Pinguico surface stockpile is thought to host about 175,000-185,000t grading 1.25-1.35g/t Au-eq.

Vangold says it is preparing to remove about 30m of debris at the bottom of the El Pinguico shaft, which last operated more than 100 years ago.

Government-funded work indicated the underground stockpile could contain about 174,500t of material, with Vangold trenching at the top of the pile returning average grades of 1.75g/t gold and 183g/t silver.

Clearing the shaft would allow the company to test the bottom of the stockpile while also allowing crews to inspect the mine's #7 adit, which might present an alternative access point. The cleared shaft would also allow crews to sample the Colmilo stope, an area last mined a century ago.

Endeavour shares (TSX:EDR) were down 2.46%, or C7c, Tuesday at $2.77, which capitalises it at $406 million (US$300 million), while Vangold (TSXV:VGLD) gained 10% to 11c, giving it a market value of $6.6 million (US$4.8 million).