The Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. holds a 99.67% interest in the Property through its subsidiary companies called Compañía Minera Mexicana de Avino, S.A. de C.V. (CMMA) and Promotora Avino, S.A. de C.V. (Promotora).
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Summary:
The Avino tailings deposit is adjacent to the processing plant, approximately 300 m westsouthwest of the mine offices. The tailings have been built up over several decades of mining and processing, and several units have been defined based on the oxidation nature of the tailings and metal content.
Due to the historical processing sequence, the oxide tailings are primarily derived from weathered and oxidized rocks close to the surface of the Property, whereas the sulphide tailings are predominantly derived from material sourced at depth from the underground workings below the weathered/leached zone.
In the oxide zone, mineralization is primarily hosted by the minerals argentite, bromargyrite, chalcopyrite, chalcocite, galena, sphalerite, bornite, native silver, gold, and native copper. Other minerals are present in mineralized areas but not hosting the metals of interest, including hematite, chlorite, quartz, barite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, and pyrrhotite. Malachite, anglesite, and limonite are common in the quartz zones of the weathered parts of the oxide material.
Adjacent to the Elena Tolosa Mine in the Avino Mine area, the oxide tailings have been predominantly sourced from legacy open pit operations, and the sulphide tailings have been predominantly sourced from later underground workings. Exposure to surface weathering and historic process activities has homogenized the tailings material to produce a deposit partly included in the Mineral Resource for the Property.
The oxide tailings deposit comprises historic recovery plant residue material that was wasted from processing plants during the earlier period of open pit mining of the Avino Vein. The oxide tailings are partially covered by younger unconsolidated sulphide tailings on the northwest side.
The Avino tailings dam is located approximately 500 m west southwest of the main shaft to the old underground workings and 2.5 km southwest of the San Gonzalo Vein.
Within the tailings dam, there are three distinct benches:
* lower oxide bench;
* middle oxide bench;
* upper bench or sulphide bench.