Advance Metals hits more visible gold at high-grade Victorian project
- Andrew Todd
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
Advance Metals (ASX: AVM) has unveiled abundant visible gold across multiple zones in its first hole for the recommenced diamond drilling program at its high-grade Myrtleford gold project in Victoria.
The extension hole was plunged to a depth of 224 metres at the company’s Happy Valley prospect, targeting a zone 25m below a previous standout visible gold intercept of 7.5m running at a massive 47.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Preliminary logging of the diamond core revealed visible gold in at least three zones of quartz-sulphide veining, which appear contiguous with the high-grade mineralisation above.
If confirmed by assays, the results would significantly expand the central high-grade gold zone at Happy Valley. Considering historic grades, it may be a prime target for an underground mining scenario at the historic mine.
The company says assays for the visible gold are expected in the first half of August.
Four shallow holes at its nearby Twist Creek prospect, to the north of its 418-square-kilometre Myrtleford tenure, also reported early signs of high-grade gold.
A standout hole at Twist Creek intersected a 1.1m section grading 8.4g/t gold from just 88.6m. Despite not featuring the impressive gold grades found at Happy Valley, Advance says the early gold signs are highly prospective at Twist, which is in a region with limited exploration or extensive drilling.
Intersecting multiple zones of mineralisation with visible gold is a fantastic way to kick off our new 10-hole diamond drilling program on the Happy Valley trend. While we have to wait for the analytical results to fully confirm its significance, the visible gold mineralisation in hole 9 seems to correlate very well with the three high-grade zones in recent hole 3 drilled some 25 metres above and including 7.5 metres at 47.9g/t gold.
Advance Metals Managing Director Dr Adam McKinnon
The new drilling program builds on Advance’s highly successful maiden campaign earlier this year, which delivered exceptional results across four holes at Happy Valley. These included 8.2m at a hefty 22.4g/t gold, with a 3.2m section running 54.7g/t, adjacent to the bonanza 7.5m at 47.9g/t gold hit.
The program also validated a historical intercept by a former project owner of 11.5m at 160.4g/t gold, which included a mouth-watering 0.6m at 2430g/t.
Advance is now set to drill at least six more holes at Happy Valley, targeting extensions to the known high-grade mineralisation. The next hole will test immediately up-dip from the visible gold hits in the hope it can fill out a resource for the high-grade veins.
Two maiden holes will also probe the company’s Sheard’s Reef prospect, 1.5km northwest, and a further two holes will target its Queen of the Hills prospect, 4.5km in the opposite direction.
The company says less than one per cent of its 13km Happy Valley trend has been drill tested, highlighting the significant exploration upside across the Myrtleford project.
Advance is off to a flyer at Myrtleford after scooping up an 80 per cent joint venture interest in it and the Beaufort gold projects in January. The project lies within the prolific Lachlan Fold Belt, home to some of Australia’s largest gold deposits, including the 22-million-ounce Bendigo goldfield to the monster Cadia-Ridgeway copper-gold porphyry in New South Wales.
The company is also advancing its high-grade Yoquivo silver-gold project in Mexico’s silver-rich Chihuahua region. Drilling at Yoquivo kicked off in May and recently delivered high-grade silver intercepts, including 3.55m at 249g/t silver equivalent and 4.42m at 446g/t. Yoquivo hosts a modest historical non-JORC compliant resource of 937,000 tonnes at 570g/t silver equivalent for 17.23 million ounces.
The company expects to have results flowing in throughout July from the recently tested high-grade epithermal vein system at Yoquivo.
The next few months are shaping up to be stacked with a steady stream of high-grade assays and news.
As the company ramps up exploration across its Victorian assets, Advance is not short of high-grade precious metals treasure troves at its prospects. And the ounces may start to stack up quickly, should the company maintain its current rate of drilling success. A resource could soon follow.
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