Endeavor

The Endeavor Mine is an underground operation that mines silver, lead and zinc 46 kilometres from Cobar in New South Wales. The mine opened in 1983 and is accessed by a decline and a haulage shaft. Its above ground facilities consist of a railway loading facility, storage, drying plant and concentrator.

CBH Purchased the Endeavor Mine in 2003

CBH Resources Limited acquired the Endeavor Mine in 2003 and since that time has upgraded both the processing plant and the mine. One of the most important upgrade was the construction of a pastefill plant. This plant has the potential to extend the life of the mine by changing from the pillar method of stope mining to that of pastefill, allowing the pillars to be extracted.

Endeavor Mine Continued Operating Through the Global Financial Crisis

Although the Endeavor Mine was severely hurt financially during the economic downturn of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 it remained in production by cutting back on output. Production during that period was cut back to 420,000 tonnes a year. Production has since increased again to where it was before the crisis, 720,000 tonnes per annum. This amount of ore being milled produces 24,000 tonnes of lead and 44,000 tonnes of zinc. In mid 2010 the plant was again upgraded to handle 850,000 tonnes a year.

Exploration Could Increase Mine's Life

Current production, with known reserves, gives the Endeavor Mine another six to 10 years of operation although orebodies are being evaluated at depth both to the north and west of the present operation that show promise of being able to be economically exploited. Exploration is continuing in these areas. CBH also operate their own ship loading facility at Newcastle which handles mineral concentrates sent to the port for export. The ship loader facility is made up of a rail receiving facility, unloading equipment, and undercover storage along with ship loading equipment. The throughput at the port can accommodate 500,000 tonnes annually.

Japanese company Toho Zinc became the 100 percent owner of CBH Resources in 2010. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as a mining company specialising in nonferrous metal refining.

The Endeavor Deposit is the Largest in the Area

The Endeavor Mine is mining the largest mineral deposit in the entire Cobar Basin an area that has two different types of mineralisation; One being a sub-vertical sheet that appear quite irregularly above 900 metres that coincides with an anticline plane. Below this sheet the mineralisation branches out into two like zones that are hosted in a shale rich sequence with limestone below.

Endeavor Mine Operated in the Conventional Manner

The Endeavor Mine is operated in a bulk mining method and it uses a traditional flotation mill for the production of concentrate that is sold on the market for smelting. Mining is undertaken via long-hole stoping with the ore being broken after blasting from a circle of drill holes. The broken rock is then loaded onto underground haulage trucks that either take it to the underground crusher for further crushing or if small enough direct to the surface via the decline. Ore crushed in the underground crusher is taken to the surface via the production shaft.

The Endeavor Mine is accessed by sealed roads for Cobar 18 kilometres to its south. Power is supplied by the grid that services the town and all the mine property is well maintained.