“Copala continues to grow rapidly with very high grades and impressive widths over a large area,” commented Michael Konnert, President, and CEO. “This recently discovered near-surface, shallow dipping structure has now been traced over 650 meters in length, 350 meters downdip, and remains open in all directions.”

“The additional holes from the Phase I drilling program continue to yield impressive copper and gold intercepts. The step out hole on the western flank of Cerro Verde has extended mineralization to the west and the SJ21-36 confirms that the copper zone extends to the south. Additionally, the oxide gold zone was extended to the south by SJ21-31, which encountered a very encouraging oxide gold intercept.”

J. Duane Poliquin, Chairman of Azucar, stated “It is very exciting to get the drill turning on this large newly defined area of alteration where so many different methods of targeting indicate a possible central and significant porphyry system. We look forward to providing updates once drilling commences.”

Just over 10 years ago drilling at La Potosina identified near surface structure similar to the San Gonzalo Vein and was continuous for 300 metres and had a vertical extension of 1,000 metres. A recent surface rights agreement was reached in early 2021 with the local landowner and as a result this area has become a high priority for Avino.

“The past year of exploration diamond drilling, underground diamond drilling, definition diamond drilling, and finally surface mapping and sampling, has been not only aggressive but has resulted in over 6,900 samples collected and analyzed. This massive input of data has led our streamlined analytical team to new important understandings of the structural and mineralization controls on the western sector of the property where approximately 80% of our efforts over the past year were focused.”

These results suggest that the Candy vein structure hosts consistently high-grade gold and silver mineralization over appreciable widths, which is open along strike and to depth for expansion.

“The original environmental application for Mezquite and recent report delivered for Diamante attest to their high-quality technical expertise and we anticipate approval of SEMARNAT permits without delay in March 2022,” said Mr. Davison. “The Company now will forge ahead with logistics planning and contractor selections for trenching to be followed by drilling.”