Advance Metals (ASX: AVM) has identified substantial new silver and gold mineralisation at its Yoquivo silver-gold project in Mexico after completing an extensive program to sample previously unassayed historic drill core.
The low-cost program has delivered multiple new high-grade intervals and revealed exceptionally broad zones of contiguous mineralisation within the central portion of the deposit, materially expanding the project’s development potential.
Advance completed sampling of approximately 5,000 metres of historic diamond core at Yoquivo, of which 3,516m have now returned assay results.
At least 519m of the resampled core returned elevated silver and or gold grades above 4 grams per tonne silver equivalent, with high-grade intervals above 100g/t silver equivalent identified in 13 separate drill holes.
These results were achieved without new drilling and stem from a shift to universal rather than selective core sampling across the Pertenencia area.
Historical Core Sampling Results
Notable intersections include 0.9m at 766g/t silver equivalent, 8.75m at 150 g/t silver equivalent including 1.1m at 848 g/t silver equivalent, and 3.2m at 187 g/t silver equivalent including 1.2m at 305 g/t silver equivalent.
When combined with original assay data, the new sampling has highlighted large-scale zones of continuous, moderate-grade mineralisation previously unrecognised within the existing drill dataset.
Broad intersections include 144m at 93 g/t silver equivalent, 97.63m at 61 g/t silver equivalent, 83.3m at 69 g/t silver equivalent, and 66.45m at 83 g/t silver equivalent.
Advance noted that these wide zones emerge clearly at lower cut-off grades and represent a material shift in scale compared with the narrow-vein underground-style foreign estimate defined using a higher cut-off.
The company believes these results point to potential for a higher-tonnage mining scenario alongside the previously recognised high-grade underground opportunity.
JORC Upgrade and Exploration Activity
Advance plans to commence incorporation of the historical core sampling results and recent drilling into an upgraded JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate once remaining assays are received.
The upcoming resource work will examine a range of cut-off grade scenarios to assess the potential for bulk-tonnage open pit development in addition to underground options.
Diamond drilling is ongoing at Yoquivo, with multiple assay results pending from the Pertenencia area and surrounding targets, while recent drilling has already returned additional silver-gold intersections—further supporting the case for resource growth and expanded development optionality at the project.
Chief executive officer Adam McKinnon said the sampling program had been “extremely successful” in unlocking mineralisation overlooked by earlier selective sampling.
“Most importantly, the change to universal rather than selective sampling has seen numerous exceptionally large zones of contiguous mineralisation emerge in the central portion of the deposit,” Dr McKinnon said.
Advance expects the combination of resampling results and ongoing drilling to play a central role in defining the next phase of development at Yoquivo.
