Brought to you by BULLS N’ BEARSAndrew ToddMay 21, 2026 — 2:02pmFresh off a string of high-grade drill hits and stellar metallurgical results, Advance Metals has moved to consolidate its ownership of the high-grade Myrtleford and Beaufort gold projects in Victoria’s goldfields.The company has amended a previous agreement to move from 80 per cent to full ownership, following little more than a year’s worth of successful exploration and outstanding gold recoveries from metallurgical tests.Diamond drilling rig on site at Advance Metals’ Myrtleford gold project in Victoria.Under the amended terms, Advance will acquire the remaining interest from the Canadian vendor for an additional consideration of A$1 million, bringing the total purchase price to A$4 million.The payments will be staged over three years and can be made in either cash or shares at Advance’s discretion, providing a flexible pathway to securing the asset while preserving its balance sheet.The trigger for the amended deal appears to be the compelling results delivered by both the drill bit and the lab at the Myrtleford project’s Happy Valley prospect.‘Ultra-high grade drilling results, excellent gravity gold recoveries and multiple untested historical trends gives Advance full exposure.’Advance Metals managing director and chief executive officer Adam McKinnonPrevious drilling had already turned heads with bonanza-grade hits, including 7.5 metres at 55 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 178m, which included a stunning 1.3-metre intercept grading 305.8g/t gold.The prospect also threw out some excellent gold recoveries of up to 96 per cent, suggesting a simple, low-cost gravity processing flowsheet would be on the cards come time to mine.Further drilling at the adjacent and historic Happy Valley Mine has also continued to impress.Recent extensional work returned high-grade results, including a 1-metre hit grading 22.3g/t gold from 102m, building on an already solid foundation of earlier high-grade hits at the project, such as 8.2m at a whopping 28.8g/t gold and 9.4m at 18.6g/t gold.Management says the results show that its high-grade gold mineralisation at Happy Valley extends to at least 500m below the surface, pointing at a typical high-grade Victorian gold system.Advance Metals managing director and chief executive officer Adam McKinnon said: “The combination of ultra-high grade drilling results, excellent gravity gold recoveries and multiple untested historical trends gives Advance full exposure to what we believe is a compelling district-scale gold opportunity in the Victorian Goldfields.”The Happy Valley deposit sits within a sizeable 13-kilometre-long mineralised corridor at Myrtleford, with most of the trend still untested by modern techniques, notwithstanding multiple old-timers’ workings littering the area.The company says it is out to prove that the gold doesn’t just stop at the old mine workings, with recent results at its Queen of the Hills prospect, four kilometres away, already validating the theory that Happy Valley represents a significantly bigger opportunity.Advance appears to be wasting little time pushing its dual-track strategy forward on multiple fronts as it continues to aggressively drill out its major Mexican silver projects.After recently announcing a maiden JORC resource of 33 million ounces of silver at its Yoquivo project in Chihuahua, the company has swiftly moved the drill rig to its second major project in the region, at Galvines.With an eye on the bigger picture, Advance has also kicked off regional exploration back home in Australia, across the broader project area at Myrtleford.The company is targeting historic mine sites along another 16-kilometre-long trend dubbed Magpie-Barwidgee, where no modern drilling has been conducted.With a swag of untested historical workings and regional targets still in play, Advance’s million-dollar move appears to be a savvy grab, backed by a precious metals opportunity that is becoming harder to ignore.Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.auFrom our partners