TMX group

Toronto Stock Exchange: EDV

GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman, Aug. 3, 2011 /CNW/ - Endeavour Mining Corporation ("Endeavour" or the "Corporation") (TSX:EDV) today announces positive exploration results on development projects in Cte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso, and operational results for the second quarter of 2011.

• Infill drilling program at the Agbaou feasibility-stage project in Cte d'Ivoire resumed in June 2011. The results received to date have consistently demonstrated continuity of grades and widths and confirmed the quality and interpretation of the mineralised zones within the deposit. Intersections include 24 metres at 10.66 g/t gold and 10 metres at 17.06 g/t gold.
• In addition, significant new exploration results were obtained from the Agbaou condemnation drilling campaign in areas which were being conceptually considered for the location of the tailings storage facility and the waste rock dump. Intersections from the waste rock dump area included 4 metres at 9.75 g/t gold and 6 metres at 3.58 g/t gold.
• Positive technical evaluation work for the expansion of the Youga Main and East pits and the 2010 NI 43-101 resource estimate will be updated during the second half of 2011 to include the encouraging exploration results on the periphery of the current pits.
• Exploration results from a resource delineation and expansion program at the Ouar deposit, located 40 kilometres northwest of the Youga Mine in Burkina Faso, include intersections of 8.8 metres at 3.83 g/t gold and 6.4 metres at 2.55 g/t gold which confirm earlier interpretations and demonstrate continuity of the Ouar Main Zone.
• Metallurgical testwork is being initiated at Ouar in preparation for scoping studies to evaluate whether the deposit will be fed to the Youga mill or potentially be a heap leach operation.

During Q2 2011, the Youga Mine in Burkina Faso produced 21,575 ounces of gold. Based on actual production results of 41,631 ounces for the first half of 2011 and the budgeted plan for the remainder of 2011, the Corporation anticipates achieving its full year guidance of approximately 84,000 ounces. Endeavour is scheduled to release its full Q2 2011 results on Wednesday, August 10, 2011.

Cte d'Ivoire

Agbaou Project Development

Endeavour is pleased to report that the 20,000 metre drilling program at the Agbaou feasibility-stage project in Cte d'Ivoire resumed in late June 2011.

The current measured and indicated mineral resource at a 0.5 g/t cut-off is 16.6 million tonnes at 1.9 g/t gold containing 1,015,000 ounces plus an inferred mineral resource of 5.1 million tonnes at 1.7 g/t gold containing 272,000 ounces¹. A portion of the drilling program is designed to upgrade mineral resource classifications and to increase the size of the deposit. The results for the initial 45 RC infill holes (3,104 metres) have been successful at confirming the continuity of grade and widths of mineralization and the highlights are provided in Table 1.

The area north east of the Agbaou West Deposit (Figure 1: http://files.newswire.ca/910/Figure_1.pdf), and on the periphery of the proposed waste rock dump, was investigated by RC drilling which returned results including 4 metres at 9.75 g/t gold and 6 metres at 3.58 g/t gold suggesting possible extensions of the west pit orebody and/or the possibility of a new orebody. On the south end of the waste dump are several intersections that may represent extensions of the Main Zone mineralization to the south west.

Further to the north, on the west side of the conceptually planned tailings facility, two holes at the end of a fence of holes returned values of 1.18 g/t gold and 1.89 g/t gold over 6 metres and 2 metres respectively. The relationship of this area to other mineralized zones is not known at this time and follow up exploration work is planned to test this possibility of additional mineralization.

These holes are being drilled on sections nominally spaced 300 metres apart with hole spacing 25 metres apart.

An additional 44 holes were completed without significant results in areas of planned infrastructure and facilities.

Neil Woodyer, Chief Executive Officer, stated "I am pleased to report on the positive infill drilling results received to date following the resumption of work at our feasibility stage project in Cte d'Ivoire and I am excited by the new mineralisation discovered at the project site during condemnation drilling. In addition to engineering studies to support a mine construction decision during Q1 2012, we are now planning a drilling program to follow-up on this unexpected mineralization."

Photos of current drilling activity have recently been posted on the Corporation's website. Work continues on engineering studies which includes a study of power supply options. A mine construction decision for Agbaou is anticipated for Q1 2012 with gold production scheduled to commence in late 2013.

Burkina Faso

Youga Mine Lease and Youga Belt Exploration Permits

Mining on Endeavour's Youga Mine Exploitation Lease commenced in 2008 and by the end of 2010 a total of 193,000 ounces of gold have been recovered. The NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources at a 0.5 g/t cut-off were estimated at 868,000 ounces (measured and indicated) plus 276,000 ounces (inferred) and the mineral resources contained 362,000 ounces of mineral reserves².

In 2011 Endeavour embarked on a major exploration program focused on increasing the mineral reserves and resources for the Youga mine in order to extend mine life and increase asset value. The principal drill target areas being:

• Peripheral extensions to the currently operated Main and East pits.
• The Zergor, Nanga, Tail, LeDuc and A2NE satellite deposits on the Youga mine lease.
• Targets on the Bitou exploration permit, located 40 kilometres north east of the Youga processing plant, which hosts a number of targets including the 323,000 ounces Inferred mineral resource with a 0.5 g/t cut-off at Ouar³.

See Figure 2: http://files.newswire.ca/910/Figure_2.pdf for locations of deposits on the Youga mine lease and Figure 3: http://files.newswire.ca/910/Figure_3.pdf for the location of the Bitou permits and Ouar deposit.

In the first half of the year a total of 26,545.5 metres of RC and diamond core drilling has been completed on these targets with encouraging results in all three areas from the assays returned to date.

Youga Mine Lease

Main / East Pit Pushback and Exploration

During the first half of 2011, and subsequent to the release of the December 2010 NI 43-101 Technical Report (issued March 2011), the open pit designs were re-evaluated based on updated cost and gold price factors. The re-evaluation demonstrated that the re-optimised pits would increase in size in terms of depth, daylight footprint and contained mineral resources. Subsequent to this re-optimisation and prior to making a decision to proceed with the expansion, work has focused on evaluating the various technical, timing and practical mining requirements of the plan. The principal aspects being assessed are the availability of mining capacity and the slope angles applicable to the revised pit shell. Work on these areas is currently being finalized.

In parallel to the engineering studies, considerable exploration drilling has been undertaken on the periphery of the deposits in the East Wall of the Main Pit (Triple A Zone), North Wall of the East Pit, the Gap zone between the pits and to the east of the East Pit. This exploration work has returned interesting mineralisation intercepts from all four areas and the mineral resource model is in the process of being updated to include these results. Infill and extension RC and diamond core drilling and updating of the mineral resource models will continue throughout the remainder of 2011 to follow up on the results to date in all four areas in order to define the full potential of these mineralized zones and the extent to which this will add further value to the economics of the planned pushbacks. Table 3 provides a selective summary of recent drill results from the pit areas and also related intercepts in these same areas obtained from previous drilling.

The current drill program has identified additional mineralization in the previously announced Triple A zone on the East wall of the Main pit where a diamond drill hole reported 37m at 2.0g/t including 4m at 6.3g/t (February 17, 2011 Press Release). The followup drilling reported intersections in five of the holes including; 8m at 6.4g/t including 1.8m at 15.0g/t, and 3m at 18.8g/t including 1m at 37.8g/t (February 17, 2011 Press Release). One hole has now reported 7m at 1.66g/t including 1m at 5.16g/t and additional drilling is underway to test this area immediately adjacent to the current pit limits with 13 holes.

Previously reported results from the North wall of the East pit include 4m at 2.1g/t, 7m at 2.2g/t including 2m at 5.0g/t, 4m at 4.7g/t including 1m at 6.2g/t (at the end of the hole) and 26m at 1.9/t including 2m at 4.3g/t (May 30, 2011 Press Release). Results from mineralization in the vicinity of the Main and East pits include 11 metres at 1.61 g/t gold and 10 metres at 1.48 g/t gold. However based on the new interpretation several of these new holes were not drilled deep enough to test the projected mineralization and several RC holes have subsequently been deepened with core, these results are pending.

Endeavour's on-going exploration focus is the addition of mineral resources and reserves at Youga to support further technical evaluation work on the Main and East pits pushbacks.

Mining Lease Satellite Deposits

Drilling continues on the mine exploitation lease and within 3 kilometres of the Youga plant on depth and strike extensions at the A2NE, Zergor, Nanga and Tail deposits, which collectively contain 159,000 ounces indicated and 165,000 ounces inferred at a 0.5 g/t cut-off, NI 43-101 compliant, gold resources². In the first half of 2011, preliminary evaluation of the satellite deposits, based on the currently declared resources, was undertaken and indicated reasonable potential for these deposits to be ultimately incorporated into the life of mine plan production plan.

Drilling highlights from the satellite deposits reported in previous news releases are summarized in Table 4. New drill results from these areas are currently being received and evaluated while additional drilling is planned.

Youga Belt Exploration - Bitou Concession - Ouar Deposit

The Ouar project is located on the Bitou permit 40 kilometres northwest of the Youga plant (see Figure 3: http://files.newswire.ca/910/Figure_3.pdf and Figure 4: http://files.newswire.ca/910/Figure_4.pdf). Figure 4 shows the drilling performed to date on Ouar Main and Ouar West.

At Ouar, the exploration camp was constructed during Q1 2011 and drilling commenced in Q2 2011. The first phase of the drill program is well underway and largely consists of in-fill drilling with both RC and core-drilling on the Ouar Main and Ouar East zones with the objective of improving the geological model and upgrading the resource classification. The second phase will explore along strike and to depth to test for additional resources.

Results of the first 4,376 metres (42 RC holes) of the planned 25,000 metre drill program provided the highlights in Table 5. As of July 8, 2011 106 RC holes (11,737 Meters) and 14 core holes (1,699.5 meters) have been completed.

Initial exploration results include intersections of 8.8 metres at 3.83 g/t gold and 6.4 metres at 2.55 g/t gold and numerous intersections across of variable grade and width ranges confirming the presence of significant gold mineralisation within the first 100 metres depth of the deposit. Many results are still pending but highlights from the initial drill-holes confirm continuity of the Main Zone and are included in Table 5.

The previously reported inferred mineral resource at a 0.5 g/t cut-off at Ouar was 4.738 Mt at 2.1 g/t containing 323,000 ounces gold³. The deposit is over two kilometres long and had been nominally tested on 50 metre spaced sections to a maximum depth of 100 metres. The current program is designed to reduce the drill hole spacing to 25 by 20 metres and to extend the resources to at least 150 metres depth on selected sections.

Samples for metallurgical testwork will be collected from core holes on the Ouar Main, West and East zones. The testwork will be part of engineering studies that will examine the potential to exploit these resources through either hauling to the existing Youga plant or processing the ores as a heap leach operation at the Ouar site.

Youga Ouar Exploration Campaign Progress

The 2011 exploration campaign was planned to drill over 50,000 metres on 17 targets. First pass drilling to date is complete on ten of these targets and continues on five of the targets. There are four rigs currently active and the program has been revised to 63,000 metres. Results are pending for drilling on nine zones.

In addition five new targets have been identified during prospecting, mapping and review of geochemical surveys with exploration programs to be developed to test these targets in 2011.

Endeavour contracted Fugro NPA to complete a compilation of satellite, geophysical and geochemical data to identify principal structural features relative to the mineralized zones. The Corporation also contracted SRK to commence a structural study including all property datasets and also mapping and core review. The first phases of these studies are complete and are being integrated for exploration targeting. SRK will be contracted to conduct additional work as the exploration program progresses. The majority of the mineralized zones on the Youga mine permit are within Tarkwa sediments. Endeavour holds two exploration permits to the southwest of Youga and these cover two basins that were highlighted by the NPA Fugro study. These additional Tarkwa inliers are at Bourgre and Zerbogo. A geophysical survey has been contracted for after the rainy season and geochemical coverage will be expanded to cover these prospective areas in addition to planned soil geochemistry surveys.

Burkina North Project Exploration

Endeavour is preparing to commence the first phase of an exploration program on Burkina North Project located in central Burkina Faso, 140 kilometres north of Ouagadougou. The project area is comprised of two, contiguous permits (Boulounga and Minima) strategically located adjacent to and north of High River Gold's Bissa Hill deposit (2.65 Moz Measured and Indicated, February 2011, Newall) and Goldrush's Ronguen deposit (0.24 Moz Inferred Resource, May 2008, Nimoh, Wahl and Couture). The program includes completion of the regional soil geochemistry over the Minima Permit and auger drill testing the north-south VTEM anomaly on the Boulounga Permit.

Neil Woodyer, Chief Executive Officer, commented "In Burkina Faso, steady and encouraging progress has been made on near mine exploration and technical evaluation work to extend the ore reserve base on the Youga mine exploitation permit and on the exploration program at the Ouar deposit located on the Bitou concession 40 kilometres north of the Youga mine plant."

Table 1 Agbaou South Main Zone Infill Drilling Highlights to July 2011

* Denotes End of Hole

Table 2 Agbaou Condemnation Drilling Highlights to July 2011

Table 3 Youga Main and East Pit Drilling Highlights to July 2011

Table 4 Youga Satellite Deposits Drilling Highlights

Table 5 Ouar Main Zone Drilling Highlights to July 2011

Qualified Person

K. Kirk Woodman, P. Geo, Head of Exploration is the Qualified Person overseeing Endeavour's exploration projects in West Africa and has reviewed and approved this press release.

Adrian De Freitas, C.Eng., General Manager, Youga Mine is the Qualified Person overseeing production and development in West Africa and has reviewed and approved this press release.

About Endeavour Mining Corporation

Endeavour is a gold producer. Endeavour also holds an extensive exploration land position and various advanced-stage development gold projects in West Africa. Endeavour has a global strategy, supported by financial resources and management's company building expertise, to grow into an intermediate gold producer through strategic acquisitions.

The common shares of Endeavour Mining Corporation are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "EDV".

On behalf of Endeavour Mining Corporation

"Christian Milau"

Christian Milau
Executive Vice President Chief Financial Officer

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The foregoing information may contain forward-looking information relating to the future performance of Endeavour Mining Corporation. Forward-looking information, specifically, that concerning future performance, is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the Corporation's filings with the appropriate securities commissions.

¹ Feasibility Update Study Report on the Agbaou Gold Project, Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa for Etruscan Resources Inc, dated September 2009, prepared by MDM Engineering International Ltd. and Coffey Mining Pty Ltd.
² Technical Report and Update of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves for the Youga Gold Mine, Burkina Faso, West Africa, effective December 31, 2010 and dated March 15, 2011, prepared by A. de Freitas and K. Woodman.