23 May 2017resource reserve update● Neutral
Tetra Tech's technical report on the Avino property, effective 11 April 2017, carrying the economic assessment of retreating the oxide tailings together with the 2016 resource estimate.
Announcements, explained
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
11 Apr 2017resource reserve update● NeutralMajor
Updated the oxide tailings economic assessment on the 2016 resource: pre-tax net present value of US$40.5 million at 8% and a 48.4% return. Essentially unchanged from the 2012 study's US$38.2 million and 60% return, five years and two resource estimates later - the project's value has not moved, and neither has its status.
12 Oct 2016resource reserve update● NeutralMajor
An updated resource for the Avino property by M.F. O'Brien of QG Australia, effective 31 August 2016, covering the Avino vein, the San Gonzalo vein and the oxide tailings. Tetra Tech, which had prepared every earlier estimate including the ones the regulator made Avino retract, is no longer the author.
26 Sept 2016resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Completed an updated resource estimate for the whole Avino property - San Gonzalo, the main Avino mine system and the oxide tailings - prepared by QG Australia, replacing Tetra Tech as author. Management notes exploration and development spending in Mexico has averaged US$4.6 million a year since 2006.
17 Apr 2015resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the economic study Bralorne had commissioned from Beacon Hill Consultants, dated and effective 15 October 2012 and amended in November 2012 - a pre-existing document inherited with the acquisition rather than new work by Avino.
26 July 2013resource reserve update● Neutral
The Tetra Tech technical report itself, effective 19 July 2013, signed by seven qualified persons and covering the Avino vein, San Gonzalo vein and the oxide and sulphide tailings.
24 July 2013resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the supporting technical report on SEDAR, effective 19 July 2013, covering San Gonzalo, the Avino mine system and the tailings. It completes the disclosure the June announcement started.
10 June 2013resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
First compliant resource for the whole property since the regulator forced the 2012 retraction: measured and indicated of 4,547,791 tonnes containing 27.5 million silver-equivalent ounces, of which San Gonzalo holds 222,407 indicated tonnes at 286 g/t silver and 2.13 g/t gold, plus inferred of 3,220,896 tonnes in the Avino system at 68.3 g/t silver, 0.73 g/t gold and 0.55% copper and 1,085,276 tonnes at San Gonzalo. Prepared by Robert Morrison of Tetra Tech; the oxide tailings figures carry forward from the July 2012 report.
29 Jan 2013drilling result▲ Good
The San Gonzalo decline has advanced about 320 metres with 47 metres left to level 5, and Avino has taken delivery of a scoop tram, jumbo and loader bought under a new Caterpillar credit facility arranged in December 2012 - equipment finance rather than equity to speed the ramp.
1 Nov 2012drilling result▲ Good
Underground sampling at San Gonzalo returned 14,768 g/t silver over 0.4 metres from the level 4 drift, where mining has reached the bottom of workings abandoned during the revolution in the early twentieth century. The decline to level 5 has advanced 170 metres with 200 metres to go.
31 Aug 2012resource reserve update● Neutral
Announced the contents of the Tetra Tech property report filed the previous month: a resource and economic study on the oxide tailings, with the sulphide tailings, San Gonzalo and Elena Tolosa identified as further targets. This is the report that replaced the disclosure the regulator made Avino retract.
30 July 2012resource reserve update● NeutralMajor
The amended Tetra Tech technical report on the whole Avino property, effective 24 July 2012 - the fourth revision of a report first drafted in June, produced under the British Columbia regulator's review of Avino's resource disclosure. It covers the oxide tailings resource and study plus the sulphide tailings, San Gonzalo and Elena Tolosa as targets.
26 Apr 2012resource reserve update● Neutral
The Tetra Tech Wardrop tailings retreatment report itself, effective 12 March 2012, filed to support the March announcement. The row's title was taken from the author's consent letter; the substance is the 16MB technical report.
23 Apr 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
More Elena Tolosa results in the same vein: 76 g/t silver, 0.29 g/t gold and 1.0% copper over 30.8 metres. Two consecutive holes of about 30 metres confirm that the main Avino vein below level 12 is a wide, moderate-grade target rather than a narrow one.
5 Apr 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
The first 2012 hole into the Elena Tolosa zone cut 142 g/t silver over 28.8 metres - far wider than anything at Guadalupe or San Gonzalo. It tests the main Avino vein below level 12, abandoned in 2001 on low metal prices and the closure of a key smelter, and follows a February 2012 agreement letting Avino mine the main vein again. The company cites a historic, non-compliant figure of 1,681,253 tons at 100 g/t silver, 0.92 g/t gold and 0.63% copper left behind at closure.
21 Mar 2012resource reserve update● Neutral
Reissued the tailings study release two days later, correctly labelling it a preliminary economic assessment and setting out that the resource covers both oxide and sulphide tailings with only the oxide portion assessed. The correction matters: the company's resource disclosure was already under review by the British Columbia Securities Commission.
19 Mar 2012resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Tetra Tech Wardrop's updated study on retreating the old Avino tailings put the pre-tax net present value at US$38.2 million at an 8% discount, a 60% internal rate of return and a 1.5-year payback, at a 1,370 tonne-a-day facility and long-term prices of US$1,271 gold and US$20.59 silver. Reprocessing waste is cheap growth for a company with little cash.
18 Jan 2012drilling result▲ Good
San Gonzalo drilling returned 6.21 g/t gold and 996 g/t silver over 2.05 metres in hole SG-11-12, with a 0.45-metre section at 2,441 g/t silver. Forty holes have now been drilled on the zone, which would become Avino's first mine back in production.
27 Sept 2011drilling result▲ Good
Drilling at the Guadalupe zone near Durango returned narrow but rich silver-lead-zinc intercepts: 451 g/t silver with 6.4% lead and 11.5% zinc over 1.35 metres in GPE-11-15, and 363 g/t silver over 0.95 metres inside a 2.30-metre intercept in GPE-11-14. Widths are around a metre, so this is vein-scale material rather than anything bulk-mineable.
11 Jan 2011drilling result▲ GoodMajor
About 10,000 tonnes have been mined and stockpiled from two San Gonzalo stopes above the 2260 level as part of the bulk sample, with roughly 1,500 tonnes left, and the mill has started processing it. Back-of-stope channel samples returned up to 4,576 g/t silver and 9.09 g/t gold over 0.65 metres, and a new stope is being opened towards a 2007 hole that cut 141 g/t silver over 6.55 metres.
29 Sept 2010drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Development on two levels at San Gonzalo intersected both the main vein and a splay, broke into the old workings to the northwest, and returned channel samples up to 5,522 g/t silver and 1.30 g/t gold over 0.80 metres. Stope preparation for production is about to start on the San Gonzalo 1 vein.
4 June 2010drilling result▲ GoodMajor
A 4-by-4 metre decline reached the San Gonzalo vein on schedule and on budget after four months, and drifting northwest and southeast has exposed the vein over 25 metres of strike. Channel samples across true widths of 1.45 to 3.15 metres returned 167 to 498 g/t silver with about 0.8 to 2.2 g/t gold - the underground development that turned San Gonzalo from a drill target into a mine.
22 Jan 2008drilling result▲ GoodMajor
First ten holes into the ET zone of the main Avino vein, which the company mined for gold, silver and copper from 1975 until 2001. Hole ET-07-01 cut 77.3 metres of Avino vein down-hole, with a significant 5.1-metre section at 114 g/t silver and 0.84% copper. Two rigs are turning, one on ET and one on other targets, with San Gonzalo results reported separately.
4 May 2006resource reserve update● Neutral
Wardrop's first technical study of reprocessing the old Avino tailings, dated March 2006 - the beginning of a project the company would still be studying eighteen years later, when it finally reached prefeasibility in 2024.