Name: Avino mine.
Location: The Avino mine is located in Durango state in north central Mexico, within the Sierra Madre silver belt, 82 km north-east of Durango City.
Mine Owner/s: Avino Silver & Gold Mines.
Brief History: The Avino Vein was mined for 27 years before its closure in 2001, owing to low metal prices.
Following several years of redevelopment, Avino completed the Avino mine and mill expansion in 2014. On January 1, 2015, full-scale operations started and commercial production was declared on April 1, 2016, following a 19-month advancement and test period.
Brief Description: The Avino mine is Avino Silver & Gold Mines’ principal asset. It comprises the Avino and San Gonzalo veins, as well oxide tailings.
Primary Metals: Silver.
Secondary Metals: Gold and copper.
Geology/Mineralisation: The Avino concession is situated within a 12 km × 8.5 km north to south caldera, which hosts numerous low sulphidation epithermal veins, breccias, stockwork and silicified zones. These zones grade into a “near porphyry” environment in the general vicinity of the Avino property.
The caldera has been uplifted by regional north-trending block faulting (a graben structure), exposing a window of andesitic pyroclastic rocks of the lower volcanic sequence, which is a favourable host rock. The upper volcanic sequence comprises rhyolite to trachytes with extensive ignimbrite and is intruded by monzonite bodies. The basal andesite-bearing conglomerate and underlying Paleozoic basement sedimentary rocks (consisting of shales, sandstones and conglomerates) have been identified on the Avino concession in the south-central portion of the caldera, covering the Guadalupe, Santiago, San Jorge, the San Gonzalo trend, Malinche, Porterito and Yolanda areas.
The Avino vein has been and continues to be the primary deposit mined on the property since at least the nineteenth century.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at February 21, 2018, were estimated at 10.66-million tonnes grading 139 g/t silver equivalent, 77 g/t silver, 0.63 g/t gold and 0.37% copper. Inferred resources were estimated at 6.09-million tonnes grading 118 g/t silver equivalent, 70 g/t silver, 0.56 g/t gold and 0.24% copper.
Total indicated resources as at February 21, 2018, were estimated at 4.26-million tonnes.
Mining Method: Avino is conducting mining activity on the Avino vein using sublevel stoping and room-and-pillar mining methods. On the San Gonzalo vein the company is using cut-and-fill and shrinkage stoping mining methods.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Mineralised material is processed into copper, silver and gold concentrate using one of four bulk floatation circuits at Avino’s on-site processing plant, which has an overall mill capacity of 2 500 t/d.
The existing tailings deposition facility has been upgraded and is fully permitted and operational for about another 500 000 t of tailings. The mine also features offices, miner’s quarters, secured explosives storage facilities, a warehouse, a laboratory and other associated facilities.
Prospects: Avino will continue to explore around the Avino mine and other high-potential targets on the property to expand known resources. Historic near-to-surface mining on the property has left many clues as to where mineralisation hotspots are located. Using modern technology to integrate, manage and interpret more than 80 km of induced polarisation geophysics, 1 500 soil samples, satellite imagery, data from ongoing drilling and historical data, the company will seek to define new high potential targets that were not visible or accessible in the past.
Contact Details:
Avino Silver & Gold Mines
Tel +1 604 682 3701
Email ir@avino.com
Website https://www.avino.com