Strong commodity prices have led to the resurgent fortunes of one of Cobar’s ‘big three’ mines.

Robust metal prices led Polymetals Resources to review its forecast earnings to bring their Endeavor Mine, 40km north west of Cobar, out of care and maintenance.

The lead, silver and zinc mine has been in care and maintenance for five years, but will be scaled back up after a restart study demonstrated better than anticipated profitability and an increased present value of $414 million from $201 million.

The silver price has risen rapidly this year and is currently sitting at $30 USD an ounce, with pundits predicting it could rise to $100 USD in coming years.

Tight global supply is also driving the zinc price up, with a 14 per cent rise in value since the beginning of 2024.

Both of these increases have provided renewed enthusiasm for the metals across Australia, including a reassessment of the viability of Endeavor, which is the second largest mine (behind the CSA Copper mine, 30km south) in Australia’s richest polymetallic region known as the Cobar Basin.

Preference for residential workforce

Company spokesperson, Linden Sproule said Polymetals would build up its workforce to around 240 people over a period of 12 months.

“We are doing our best to maximise our residential workforce but it’s a competitive market for workers at this point and not easy to attract talent.

“But we’ve already put a highly experienced General Manager in place, in Matthew Gill. Matthew comes to us with over 40-years of experience, working in many metalliferous underground mines in Australia and overseas, most notably being GM at Beaconsfield Mine in Tasmania. He has already moved to Cobar with his partner and is looking forward to leading at Endeavor,” Mr Sproule said.

He said the company was currently attracting investment which would move the project further.

“We are conscious of the significance of the Endeavor Mine in the Cobar region. It opened 40 years ago and has a big impact on the economic growth of the region.”

The underground mine, originally known as Elura first opened In 1983 and was re-named Endeavor in 2003.