Avino Silver drills 248 g/t AgEq over 16.66 metres at Avino mine, Mexico

Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. [ASM-TSX, NYSE American; GV6-FSE] released the results of four drill holes from below Level 17, the current deepest workings at the Avino mine, Durango, Mexico.

The company has been mining the Avino Vein by modern bulk mining methods to a depth of 483 metres. This drilling shows the Avino Vein to extend a further 315 metres downdip. This exploration program is designed to test the continuity of the steeply dipping mineralization and to understand the source of the mineralization. As a result of this drilling, the Avino Vein is now known to be 800 metres deep downdip. Additionally, it appears that the Avino Vein is getting richer in copper as we go deeper with a grade of 1.63% copper over 16.66 metres in Hole ET 22-12.

Selected intercepts include Hole ET 22-12 that returned 248 g/t AgEq in 16.66 metres of drilling, including 371 g/t AgEq over 8.57 metres true width.

Hole ET 22-13 returned 254 g/t AgEq including 2.46 Au g/t, over 1.10 metres true width at only 35 metres from surface, as well as 73 g/t AgEq over 23.64 metres true width, including 90 g/t AgEq over 7.95 metres true width.

“The ET area drilling continues to build on our June and October 2022 results as we extend the area of mineralization below Level 17,” said David Wolfin, President and CEO. “We drilled to 315 metres below our current mine workings to confirm the continuity of mineralization. As we have come to expect with the Avino Vein, the drill intercept widths suggest that this area will be able to be mined by our existing low-cost bulk methods. In addition, we were delighted to discover a new veinlet closer to the surface that reported higher grade gold. Some of the current production areas contain lenses with high gold grades, and we are excited at the prospect that this would continue to other areas of the deposit not currently included in our mineral resource estimate.”

Avino is developing a geological model based on a “near porphyry” environment because of the increasing copper grades. The persistence of grade continuity from surface down a plunge distance of over 800 metres (600 metres vertical) with this copper increase supports the possibility of a deeper mineralized system and may be linked to a porphyry centre.

Geological modelling is ongoing to determine the potential geometry and controls of the mineralization. Our drill program continues into 2023 with 8000 metres planned for the year.

The property contains numerous low-sulphidation epithermal veins (including the Avino vein), breccias, stockworks, and silicified zones that grade into a possible “near porphyry” environment within a large caldera setting. This caldera has been uplifted by regional north-trending block faulting (a graben structure) exposing a window of andesitic pyroclastic rocks of a lower volcanic sequence within this caldera. The lower volcanic sequence is overlain by an upper volcanic sequence consisting of rhyolite to trachyte lava flows and extensive ignimbrites. The direction of the increasing copper grade plunges towards the east in the Avino vein. The changing tenor of the mineralization could be reflecting a transition from epithermal to porphyry-style mineralization.

A total of 13 holes were drilled below level 17 in 2022. The most recent four holes, totalling 2,518 metres drilled, were completed to investigate the continuity of mineralization in the central part of the ET Area. Three of the holes intercepted the mineralization within the vein and stockwork.

Vein-type mineralization and stockwork containing silver, gold and copper are found along the contacts between intrusive rocks and an andesite. This provides opportunities within the ET Area for the identification and delineation of additional mineral resources that remain open on strike and dip. This recent deeper drilling confirms that the mineralization persists down dip significantly past the lowest developed mining level and may prove to add substantial mineral resources. An updated mineral resource estimate, up to hole ET-22-13, is currently scheduled for Q1 2023.

Avino is primarily a silver producer from its wholly owned Avino Mine near Durango, Mexico.