Advance Metals Hits Visible High-Grade Gold Zones in Drilling at Happy Valley Prospect

Advance Metals (ASX: AVM) has intersected multiple zones of visible gold mineralisation during diamond drilling at the Happy Valley target within its Myrtleford project in Victoria’s goldfields region.

The mineralisation was reportedly contiguous with an earlier hole within the same campaign, and confirmation of analytical results could potentially lead to an expanded zone of “exceptionally high-grade gold” in the central portion of the deposit.

Logging and processing of the core is now underway, with the company expecting assay results in early August.

Extensions to Mineralisation

The 10-hole campaign targeted extensions to high-grade gold mineralisation at the site.

The program’s first hole tested the continuity of a zone approximately 25 metres below an intersection of 7.5m at 47.9 grams per tonne gold the company previously reported in May.

Advance completed the hole yesterday at 224m total depth, intersecting visible gold associated with sulphide-bearing quartz veins in at least three discrete high-grade zones.

Early Indication of Potential

Managing director Dr Adam McKinnon said the visible gold was an early indication of Happy Valley’s potential.

“While we have to wait for the analytical results to fully confirm its significance, it seems to correlate very well with the discrete high-grade zones and we believe we will have significant potential to expand the system up-dip, down-dip, and along strike in both directions.”

Ongoing exploration will see the company drill the shallowest and deepest holes at Myrtleford to date and test new prospects to the north-west and south-east.

Twist Creek Assays

Advance has also reported assays from four shallow holes completed at the Twist Creek trend, located 40km north of Happy Valley.

Significant intersections were 1.1m at 8.4g/t gold from 88.6m and 1.2m at 0.5g/t gold from 101m, both at Victoria Reef, along with 0.4m at 2.3g/t gold from 99.8m at Scandinavia Reef.

While the tenor of grades was lower than at Happy Valley, Dr McKinnon said the company was encouraged by the presence of shallow gold mineralisation, given limited existing exploration and drilling data.

Advance is now reviewing the potential of other parallel structures in the area to host wider zones of mineralisation.