Advance Metals to dive into untested drill core at Mexican silver play
- Andrew Todd
- Aug 27
- 3 min read
Advance Metals (ASX: AVM) has uncorked a bevy of prospective drill core at its Yoquivo silver-gold project in Chihuahua, Mexico, identifying a whopping 6351 metres of potentially high-grade diamond core untested by the project’s previous owners.
The latest landslide of samples at its high-grade Pertenencia prospect represents more than half of total drilling in the area. It opens a very handy catalogue of potential intercepts and data for the company.
Advance has now launched a targeted drill core sampling program to unlock unrecognised silver and gold mineralisation around its recent high-grade drilling successes.
Yoquivo recently churned out multiple enticing silver intercepts from the company’s maiden 3111m diamond drilling program, many of which fall outside the project’s existing historic resource.
Promising maiden intercepts include hits such as 4.87m at 544 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent (AgEq) and a broader 40.5m intercept grading 105g/t AgEq from 176m depth.
Advance says the newly identified zones could significantly expand the foreign estimated 937,000 tonnes at 570g/t AgEq for 17.23 million ounces, prompting it to take a deep dive into historical drill core stored at a nearby facility.
The company says a meticulous review of adjacent holes drilled by the project’s former owner revealed that sampling was either “highly patchy or completely absent” in zones along strike from Advance’s recent high-grade hits.
This could lead to an extremely cost-effective identification of unsampled high-grade mineralisation and the exciting prospect of adding serious additional ounces for the minor cost of lab sampling.
Advance is busy cutting up an initial 3500m of the highest-potential core closest to known mineralisation. It expects to land assay results by October.
The Pertenencia area in question lies at the heart of Yoquivo’s mineralisation, where the company’s recent drilling uncovered broad zones of moderate to high-grade mineralisation. The hits included 23.83m at 85g/t AgEq from 99m and 17.5m at 111g/t AgEq from 30m within 50m of historically unsampled core.
With current gold prices soaring to $5200 per ounce and silver hitting $58 per ounce, the economic upside of Yoquivo’s mineralisation is even more compelling. It suggests a resource equivalent to a high-grade 5g/t gold equivalent, even after 80 per cent recoveries are applied.
By first focusing on core adjacent to known high-grade zones, Advance can rapidly enhance the geological model and potential resources, while giving all-important direction for its next crucial drilling campaign at the project.
Yoquivo is easily pulling ahead as the cornerstone project in Advance’s growing Mexican portfolio, which also includes its high-grade Guadalupe y Calvo project. Guadalupe y Calvo has a non-JORC compliant estimate of 60.6 million ounces silver equivalent, while the nearby Gavilanes project has an estimated 22.4 million ounces silver equivalent.
Advance’s broader high-grade precious metals portfolio lies closer to home at its Myrtleford gold project in Victoria’s renowned Lachlan Fold belt. Recent visual gold intercepts at Myrtleford revealed extraordinary grades, including a 9.4m hit grading a massive 20.2g/t gold, with a 3.2m section at 44.2g/t.
The company’s dual focus on high-grade precious metals in Australia and Mexico appears to be humming on both fronts.
With the Yoquivo sampling program expected to yield results by October, an upcoming JORC-compliant expanded resource and assays still pending from its Victorian project, Advance has got a bevy of high-grade precious metals catalysts to keep the market captivated throughout 2025.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au
