Re-assayed Victorian samples supercharge Advance gold grades

Grades from visible gold lit up in a cut section of sulphide core from 189.0m at Advance Metals’ Happy Valley prospect in Victoria. Advance used a screen fire method to re-assay the sample, boosting grades 29% to 3.4m at a blistering 68.2g/t gold.

Advance Metals (ASX: AVM) has turned up the heat at its Happy Valley gold prospect in Victoria’s historic Myrtleford project after re-assayed sections of diamond core lit up with ultra-high-grade zones of the yellow metal.

The company retested 55 individual samples from five previously drilled holes using a screen fire assay technique, which is widely considered superior to conventional fire assays where coarse, nuggety gold is at play.

Screen fire testing breaks from tradition by chewing through a far bigger sample - up to a full kilogram of pulverised rock - splitting the coarse gold from the fines to deliver a sharper, often higher read.

The alternate sampling didn’t disappoint. A standout intercept from hole one jumped from 22.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold to a blistering 28.8g/t over 8.2 metres, including a mind-bending 3.4m at 68.2g/t gold from 186m.

The grade for the second hole tested also surged, climbing 15 per cent to 55g/t gold across 7.5m from 178m depth and featured one 1.3m section running at a jaw-dropping 305.8g/t gold. Resampled core from a third hole also showed strong form, climbing 17 per cent to 6.1m grading 4.1g/t gold from 245m depth.

The remaining two holes showed minor downgrades but still confirmed zones of solid mineralisation, including a 3.2m slice grading 38.9g/t gold within a broader intercept of 9.4m running at 8.6g/t gold.

Fresh fire assays from shallower peripheral drilling added further spice. One hole returned 0.9m at 25.1g/t gold from 156m, while a second hole nailed 1.4m at 7.6g/t gold, including a 0.6m slice at 16.9g/t gold. Even the short intercepts continue to reinforce the system’s continuity and depth potential.

Advance fired up a 10-hole diamond program in May across its 418-square-kilometre ground, prioritising six holes on its Happy Valley prospect, after February’s maiden drilling delivered a sizzling 7.5m at 48g/t gold beneath old workings.

The sixth hole, now in progress at the prospect, is the boldest yet. Advance is testing 400m down and 80m beneath known gold mineralisation. A hit here could blow open the system’s depth potential and set up a new phase of drilling.

Happy Valley is just the opening act in Advance Metals’ Myrtleford story. The prospect sits within a 13km-long trend bristling with historic workings.

The company has saved the remaining four holes of the current program for two targets called Queen of the Hills and Sheard’s Reef, which have been completely untouched by modern drilling.

Respectively sitting immediately to the southeast and northwest of Happy Valley, both targets have shown strong surface rock chips and a track record of high-grade historic production.

While pushing forward with its Victorian project, Advance has also been busying itself with work on its significant silver interests in Mexico.

The company’s broader in-country portfolio includes a three-project lineup of Yoquivo, Guadalupe y Calvo and Gavilanes, which collectively host a substantial 100 million ounces of silver equivalent in resource, which is still considered a foreign estimate.

Given the stellar performance of silver prices in the past year, currently topping US$44.5 (A$67) per ounce, the company is rushing to convert the foreign estimates into a JORC-compliant resource.

Guadalupe y Calvo is the biggest of the prospects and comprises a non-JORC compliant foreign estimate of 9.5 million tonnes grading 2.7g/t gold-equivalent for 816,000 ounces gold-equivalent or 60.6 million ounces silver-equivalent.

The company’s Yoquivo project, about 245km northwest of Guadalupe y Calvo, sits on 17.23 million ounces of silver-equivalent in foreign estimates, while its Gavilanes project in the state of Durango hosts 22.4 million ounces of silver-equivalent.

Advance now finds itself with one foot planted firmly in Victoria’s high-grade goldfields and the other in Mexico’s silver-rich Sierra Madre, giving it a rare dual exposure to two of the world’s most prolific precious metals belts.

With assays still to drop and fresh drilling underway at its Myrtleford project, the company looks primed to keep the news flow - and punters’ attention - running hot.

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