The Avino vein is 1.6 km long and 60 m wide on the surface. To date, the deepest level accessed was at the 2,070 m level (330 m below surface).

The Avino vein is the most striking and important example of the epithermal mineralization of the district whose structures are normally weathered and leached in their upper section as a result of contact with atmospheric waters producing a band of oxide minerals and zones of supergene enrichment to a depth of about 70 m.

In the oxide portion of the Avino vein, the common minerals encountered include hematite, limonite, anglesite and copper carbonate in white or green, somewhat chloritized, quartz zones. The common primary and secondary minerals encountered are argentite, bromargyrite, chalcopyrite, chalcocite, galena sphalerite, bornite, native silver, free gold, and native copper. Other minerals present in mineralized areas include quartz, pyrite, chlorite, barite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and specularite.

Higher silver values, which appear to be found at or near the surface, are reported to decrease overall with depth, except at vein intersections where higher values are more persistent. The same can be said for gold, although the higher values start just below the onset of silver mineralization, at or near the surface. In contrast, higher copper values coincide with vein intersections and may increase with depth.

The Avino vein has been followed longitudinally for more than 1,300 m and vertically for more than 600 m. It strikes north 66° east with an east-west splay, and dips to the south and southeast at 60° to 70°. Steeply dipping, acicular high grade zones within the vein and stock-work zones are frequently found in the upper part of the vein, as well as at its intersections with a number of lateral veins. An example of a higher grade area of mineralization encountered with major lateral vein intersecting the Avino was the El Hundido, which exceeded 40 m in thickness. In the lower areas of the vein and mine, mineralized cross-veins, branch-veins, and stockwork zones have been found in the footwall at San Luis and at El Hundido, and are assumed to persist with depth. The hanging wall of the Avino vein is andesite, while the footwall is a monzonite intrusive with andesite sections. A post-mineralization fault parallel with the vein occurs in the hanging wall at a distance of several metres in the area of San Luis, while in the central part of El Hundido, this fault is located at the contact with the vein over a distance of about 300 m, up to the area of Santa Elena and San Antonio. From that point, and proceeding toward the El Chirumbo Mine, this fault cuts the vein between the face at San Carlos to the face exposed at the underground ramp. The fault then enters the footwall where it remains until a point about 30 m east of the west face of the Chirumbo area, producing a downward displacement of the vein of between 50 to 100 m.

The deposit is epithermal and made up of veins and dependent stockwork structures, mainly in the hanging wall and often associated with vein intersections.

Avino is currently conducting mining activity on the Avino Vein. Longhole stoping and sublevel caving mining methods are being used.

The Avino Mill serves the Avino and San Gonzalo mines.

The process plant consists of crushing and grinding facilities, followed by a flotation process circuit to recover and upgrade silver and gold from the feed material. Common reagents were used within the flotation circuit. The flotation concentrate is thickened, filtered and sent to a concentrate stockpile for subsequent shipping to customers.

In late 2012, the decision was made to expand the primary crushing circuit to operate at up to 1,500 to tpd and feed three separate recovery circuits:
Circuit 1 ((250 tpd operating throughput)) will continue to process high-grade mill feed from the San Gonzalo Mine.
Circuit 2 (250 tpd operating throughput) was commissioned in April 2013 and is used to process material from the Avino and San Gonzalo Mines.
Circuit 3 (1000 tpd operating throughput) began processing new underground material from the Avino Mine on January 1, 2015. 1000 tpd.

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