5 Dec 2012production update▲ Good
November milled 6,528 tonnes at 256 g/t silver and 0.99 g/t gold, at 218 tonnes a day - throughput flat on October but head grade up from 233 g/t silver.
Announcements, explained
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
7 Nov 2012production update▲ GoodMajor
First full month of San Gonzalo production: the mill averaged 220 tonnes a day in October and produced roughly as much silver-equivalent in that one month as in the whole of the third quarter running old stockpiles. Grade, not tonnage, is what changed.
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.
24 Oct 2012production update▲ GoodMajor
The turning point from explorer to producer: on 1 October Avino began milling high-grade San Gonzalo ore through a 250 tonne-a-day circuit at its own plant, five years after exploration there started. Until then the mill had been running old surface stockpiles from the main Avino mine.
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.
31 July 2012joint venture update▲ Good
Gave Endeavour Silver an option over up to 75% of the 91.7-hectare Laberinto property in Durango, for up to US$200,000 of option payments over four years and up to US$3 million of exploration spending, with a joint venture to follow. Someone else pays to explore a small non-core property while Avino concentrates on getting San Gonzalo into production.
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.
3 July 2012listing compliance notice▼ BadMajor
The British Columbia regulator issued a cease trade order after its review of Avino's resource disclosure, which had already forced a clarification and retraction in May 2012 and which the company compounded by leaving a presentation carrying a global resource estimate on its website. An amended technical report has been filed with the regulator. Every resource number Avino published before this point should be read against this.
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, ET-12-01, cut 142 g/t silver over 28.8 metres, including 175 g/t over 20.7 metres. It tests the main Avino vein below level 12, where mining stopped in 2001, and the company cited a historic, non-compliant 1,681,253 tons at 100 g/t silver, 0.92 g/t gold and 0.63% copper left 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 tailings retreatment study put the pre-tax NPV at US$38.2 million at an 8% discount, with a 60% IRR and 1.5-year payback. It assumed a 1,370 tonne-a-day heap leach plant costing US$29.1 million, with long-term prices of US$1,271 gold and US$20.59 silver.
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.
19 Dec 2011asset acquisition disposition● Neutral
Sold the last of the 2011 copper concentrate, grading about 2.2 kg per tonne silver and 25 g/t gold, produced from stockpiles left over from earlier mining of the Avino vein. Seven or eight truckloads remain to be delivered to Manzanillo, with provisional payment expected in late December - a company still living off old stockpiles rather than a running mine.
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.
6 Apr 2011asset acquisition disposition▲ GoodMajor
Sold the first 200 tonnes of bulk concentrate from the San Gonzalo sample to MRI Trading, grading about 12 kg per tonne silver and 30 g/t gold. The 10,000-tonne programme finishes in early April, after which the feed grades, metallurgy and smelter returns decide whether commercial production goes ahead; the target is a sustained 250 tonnes a day. Wardrop has also been engaged to update the 2006 tailings study.
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.
12 Nov 2010capital raising announcement▲ GoodMajor
Closed a C$3.0 million non-brokered private placement, 2,400,000 units at C$1.25 each carrying a three-year warrant at C$1.52, with Sprott Asset Management taking part. No commission was paid. It funds the San Gonzalo bulk sample and development.
What it means for a shareholder
2.4m new shares at C$1.25 to raise about C$3.0m. Shares on issue before the raise aren't in the record, so the dilution can't be worked out.
Create a free account to see this worked out for your own holding.
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 x 4 metre decline intersected the San Gonzalo vein on schedule and on budget after four months, and drifting northwest and southeast exposed 25 metres of strike. Fifteen channel samples across 1.45 to 3.15 metres averaged 1.27 g/t gold and 341 g/t silver.
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.