Advance goes all-in on emerging high-grade gold plays in Victoria
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Andrew Todd
Following a series of high-grade drilling and excellent metallurgical results, Advance Metals has moved to consolidate its ownership of the high-grade Myrtleford and Beaufort gold projects in Victoria’s goldfields.
The company moved from 80 percent to full ownership, changing an earlier agreement, following spectacular gold gains from just over a year of successful exploration and metallurgical testing.
Under the amended terms, Advance will acquire the remaining interest from the Canadian seller for an additional fee of A$1 million, bringing the total purchase price to A$4 million.
Payments will be phased over three years and can be made in cash or shares at Advance’s discretion, providing a flexible way to secure the asset while protecting its balance sheet.
The trigger for the change of agreement appears to be the compelling results provided by both the drill bit and the laboratory at the Myrtleford project’s Happy Valley project.
‘Ultra-high-grade drilling results, excellent gravity gold recoveries and numerous untested historical trends provide full access to Advance.’
Adam McKinnon, general manager and chief executive officer of Advance Metals
Previous drilling has attracted attention with good grade hits, including 7.5 meters at 55 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 178m and a stunning 1.3 meter intercept grading 305.8 g/t gold.
Probability also revealed excellent gold gains of up to 96 percent; This suggested that a simple, low-cost gravity processing flowsheet would be available when the time came for mining.
Drilling at the adjacent historic Happy Valley Mine also continued to impress.
Recent expansions have yielded high-grade results, including a 1-metre hit grading 22.3 g/t gold from 102 metres; This builds on an already solid foundation of previous high-grade hits at the project, such as 28.8 g/t gold over 8.2m and 18.6 g/t gold over 9.4m.
Management says the results show that the high-grade gold mineralization at Happy Valley extends to at least 500 meters below the surface, indicating a typical high-grade Victorian gold system.
Adam McKinnon, managing director and chief executive officer of Advance Metals, said: “The combination of ultra-high-grade drilling results, excellent gravity gold recoveries and numerous untested historical trends provides Advance with the ability to fully unlock what we believe is an attractive district-scale gold opportunity in the Victoria Goldfields.”
The Happy Valley deposit is located within a sizeable 13 kilometer mineralized corridor at Myrtleford; Despite plenty of old-timers work littering the area, much of the trend remains untested by modern techniques.
The company says it set out to prove that gold doesn’t just end up in old mines; Recent results at the Queen of the Hills mine, four kilometers away, already confirm the theory that Happy Valley represents a much larger opportunity.
While Advance continues to aggressively explore major Mexican silver projects, it appears to be wasting little time advancing its two-pronged strategy on multiple fronts.
After recently announcing JORC’s maiden silver resource of 33 million ounces at the Yoquivo project in Chihuahua, the company quickly moved the drilling rig to Galvines, its second largest project in the region.
Keeping the big picture in mind, Advance has also begun regional exploration across the wider project area at Myrtleford, Australia.
The company is targeting historic mining areas along another 16-kilometre-long trend called the Magpie-Barwidgee, where modern drilling is lacking.
In an environment where untested historical studies and regional targets still prevail, Advance’s million-dollar move looks like a masterstroke backed by a precious metals opportunity that is becoming harder to ignore.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
