Advance Metals to chase further visible gold at Victorian play

Advance Metals is charging ahead at its high-grade Myrtleford gold project in Victoria’s goldfields, with regulatory approvals now secured to kick off an expanded 10-hole diamond drilling campaign across its Happy Valley Trend.

Following a highly successful maiden drilling program earlier this year, Advance has received the green light under a low-impact exploration notification to recommence drilling at three key sites along the 6-kilometre Happy Valley Trend.

Advance Metals will soon kick off 10-hole follow-up drilling program at its Myrtleford gold project in the Victorian Goldfields.

The additional 10-hole program, set to kick off next week, will see six diamond holes plunged into Advance’s Happy Valley ground to target extensions to the high-grade mineralisation intersected in the company’s first four holes at the prospect.

First-pass results delivered stunning gold intercepts, including an 8.2-metre hit running a stunning 22.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, with a meaty 3.2m portion grading 54.7g/t, a bonanza 7.5m grading 47.9g/t and a respectable 6.1m slice at 3.5g/t.

Two maiden diamond holes will test the nearby Sheard’s Reef prospect, 1.5km west-northwest of Happy Valley. The remaining two holes will target high-grade gold 4.5km to the east-southeast at the company’s Queen of the Hills prospect, aiming to extend drilling across a 6km section of the Happy Valley trend within the Myrtleford project.

Advance says site preparation is already underway, with the drilling contractor set to mobilise within the next 7-10 days, putting drilling on track to commence in mid-June.

The company recently inked a binding agreement over the 418-square-kilometre Myrtleford project with Serra Energy Metals Corporation to acquire an 80 per cent stake.

The project lies within the Lachlan Fold Belt, a geological powerhouse responsible for some of Australia’s largest gold deposits, including the 22-million-ounce Bendigo goldfields and the high-grade Fosterville mine, Australia’s lowest-cost pure gold mine.

Advance’s string of impressive results confirms an extraordinary historically reported hit of 11.5m at 160.4g/t gold by a former project owner, which included a jaw-dropping 0.6m at 2430g/t.

The company says less than 1 per cent of the 13km-long Happy Valley Trend has been tested by drilling to date, and it will now ramp up efforts to chase high-grade mineralisation up and down plunge and along strike.

Assays are still pending for four holes drilled at Advance’s Twist Creek prospect, 45km north-northwest of Happy Valley. Results from its targeted Scandinavia and Victoria prospects at Twist Creek are expected in mid-June.

Advance is also keeping the drill bit spinning at its recently acquired Yoquivo silver-gold project in Chihuahua, Mexico, where a 3000m maiden diamond drilling campaign is underway. Assays from the program targeting high-grade epithermal vein systems building on previous intersections, such as 6.2m at 2404g/t silver and 17.2g/t gold, are expected in the second half of this month.

Yoquivo hosts a non-JORC foreign resource estimate of 937,000 tonnes at 570g/t silver equivalent for 17.23M ounces of silver, a stunningly high-grade deposit that Advance is no doubt eager to expand.

Advance’s dual focus on the Victorian goldfields and Mexico’s silver-rich Chihuahua region positions it to capitalise on soaring precious metal prices, with gold above $5100 per ounce and silver holding steady above $46 per ounce.

With approvals in hand, drills ready to turn and a pipeline of assay results on the horizon, Advance Metals will look to deliver a stream of further high-grade results to the market. It seems the company is really leaning into a serious precious metals run and the adage that grade is king.

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