Advance Metals (ASX: AVM) is off to great start at its Yoquivo project in Mexico with new assays from the company’s maiden diamond drilling campaign returning impressive high-grade silver-gold hits that have successfully extended mineralisation at depth, while adding important information to Advance’s updated geological model for the project.

The company will use this new model to help design future exploration and evaluation programs at the site in southwestern Chihuahua, as well as a potential to be included in a JORC level mineral resource estimate (MRE).

The final four assays from Advance’s eight-hole 3,111-metre program focused around the existing foreign estimate in the project’s Pertenencia area included 1.11m at 2,063 grams per tonne silver equivalent, with 1,556g/t silver & 6.6g/t gold from 312.38m.

Significant Intersection

The intersection – among the best Advance has drilled in the central portion of the Pertenencia vein – has extended high-grade mineralisation a further 60m to 70m down-dip.

Managing director Dr Adam McKinnon said the results were exactly what Advance was hoping to see from its maiden Yoquivo drilling program.

The company also believes that the position of the new mineralisation at the base of the existing foreign resource estimate highlights the potential for significant future resource extensions.

A further three scoping holes Advance drilled to the north of the existing foreign estimate all intersected encouraging mineralisation in narrow high grade structures.

Australian Drilling Success

Earlier this month, Advance reported high-grade gold returns in initial assay results from the diamond drilling program the company recently recommenced at its Myrtleford project in the Victorian goldfields of Australia.

The program at the Happy Valley prospect, which was targeting extensions to high-grade gold mineralisation at the site, featured a return of 9.4m at 20.4g/t gold including 3.2m at 44.2g/t from 200.6m and expanded a zone of exceptionally high-grade gold in the central portion of the deposit.

Dr McKinnon said the current footprint of the Happy Valley prospect represents only a small portion of a larger 13km trend, with Advance planning follow-up drilling of several new prospects at Myrtleford along strike to the northwest and southeast.

“The quality of these results bode well for the ongoing potential of the Happy Valley prospect and also the broader trend, and I am particularly pleased to see that the gold mineralisation appears fairly contiguous, allowing us to effectively target our follow-up exploration programs,” he added.