Broad drill hits expand Advance Metals Mexican silver-gold footprint
The company's first probe with the drill rig is chasing high-grade epithermal vein stacks in the heart of the Sierra Madre Occidental Belt, which is one of Mexico's most promising silver-gold districts.
A single drill hole has intersected a stacked series of mineralised zones, including a thick 23.8 metres averaging 85 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent from 100m, followed by a 16.4m hit at 104g/t silver equivalent from 133m and 21.2m at 55g/t silver equivalent from 162.9m.
Encouragingly, a second hole pierced a shallow broad zone of mineralisation from 30m below the surface, pulling up 17.5m at 111g/t silver equivalent. Deeper down, the same hole hit 1.3m at an impressive 516g/t silver equivalent from 224.2m, 6m averaging 176g/t silver equivalent from 285m and an additional 2.2m at 285g/t from 324.7m.
The broad zones of mineralisation extend beyond the current defined envelope at Pertenencia, underscoring its strong potential for resource expansion. Geological remodelling is underway as the company targets a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate.
'These new results show the incredible upside potential of the project.'
Advance Metals managing director Dr Adam McKinnon
The latest haul follows Advance's first pass results that delivered stunning silver-gold intercepts, including a 3.5m hit grading 249g/t silver equivalent, a bonanza 4.42m at 676g/t and a thick 40.57m averaging 105g/t silver equivalent.
The company is now drilling a final hole in the 3000m program at the northern end of Pertenencia.
The campaign has zeroed in on the high-grade prospect, home to Yoquivo's impressive non-JORC foreign estimate of 937,000 tonnes at a hefty 570g/t silver equivalent for a total of 17.23 million ounces silver equivalent.

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Perth Now
4 hours ago
- Perth Now
Big call as Aussie artists sound AI alarm
Australia alone cannot protect the country's content makers from data-ravenous artificial intelligence and must work with other countries, opposition finance spokesman James Paterson says. The warning comes as artists sound the alarm over AI models feeding off their works to continue advancing. AI itself cannot produce original content, so it must be trained using whatever humans have created. It also scrapes as much data from as many sources as it can to answer queries, including news organisations. The models are usually monetised by their big tech backers, such as OpenAI, Google and Meta, without compensation to people doing the heavy lifting. Echoing Productivity Commission recommendations, Senator Paterson said on Thursday the answer was not more regulation. Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson says Australia should work with other countries to protect content makers' copyright. David Crosling / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia 'I think we need to be mindful of the fact that Australia is a medium power, that we're not the main source of innovation and development in this industry, that most of these companies are headquartered overseas, either in Silicon Valley, or indeed in China, or elsewhere in the world, and our ability to regulate them is limited,' Senator Paterson told Sky News. 'I think it would be far better if we work with governments of aligned thinking to work on this collectively in a way that is enforceable against these companies, which are enormous and which have their own intellectual property which they can quickly move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to find the most attractive settings and the most attractive policy settings that allow them to flourish and to innovate. 'And if Australia just becomes a hostile jurisdiction to that, then we don't win from that, we only lose from it.' Australian rock legend Peter Garrett is among the most vocal Australian artists pushing for tighter rules on AI. He said the idea of tech firms using his music to train AI without his consent was 'horrifying' and called it a 'massive breach of copyright'. Garrett has also advocated for 'robust laws to ensure copyright holders are adequately remunerated, licenses applied and transparency around the actual processes used when a creator's work is exploited'. Australian rock legend Peter Garrett says training artificial intelligence on music without artists' consent is a 'massive breach of copyright'. Dean Sewell / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia Australia has managed to strike deals with American tech titans to compensate media companies for content shared on their social media platforms, so there is precedent. But AI is still very much an emerging technology and most governments and businesses have not worked out an economic road map for it. To make matters more complex, non-Western countries have proven capable of producing competitive alternatives, such as China's DeepSeek. China is a notoriously difficult country to enforce copyright. In a report released this week, the Productivity Commission warned against taking a 'heavy-handed' approach to AI regulation, saying to do so could stifle innovation and cause Australia to fall behind other countries. Instead, it recommended making existing regulations fit-for-purpose. That included plugging gaps around consumer protection, privacy, and copyright. The commission said AI-specific regulation should only be considered as a 'last resort' for specific use cases where existing laws were clearly insufficient to mitigate harms. It also called for a pause on mandatory 'guardrails' for high-risk AI until the reviews of existing regulations were complete.


The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
The solution to Australia's skills shortage hiding in plain sight
In Australia today, like the proverbial chameleon in the crowd, there is an issue and its solution hiding in plain sight. Migrants and refugees are struggling to get jobs that befit their skills and experience. At the same time, we have a critical skills shortage. Migrants and refugees face barriers, including a lack of local experience and networks, English language proficiency or pronunciation and a lack of familiarity with Australian workplace culture and the job market. There are also difficulties and barriers, including exorbitant costs, in getting overseas qualifications recognised in Australia. These structural barriers inhibit positive migrant and refugee career outcomes. Also, employers can be reticent or unsure about hiring migrants and refugees, and mainstream employment services often are either not accessible or unsuited to migrants and refugees. Easily available statistics and research paint a picture of the effect of this situation. Migrants from non-English-speaking countries suffer persistent wage gaps, and overseas-educated migrants earn less than similarly qualified Australians, particularly those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Poor English can affect employment, with 44 per cent of migrants and refugees working below their skill level, even though 57 per cent of them hold university qualifications. And strong accents or a lack of knowledge of local industry jargon exacerbates the problem. At the same time, we know there are critical workforce shortages across a plethora of sectors. The current shortfall of GPs in Australia will rise to 3900 in 2028 and to more than 8900 in 2028; and the undersupply of nurses will rise to almost 80,000 by 2035. Engineers Australia has reported that the nation's engineering skills and labour shortage are at their highest level in a decade. And Master Builders Australia says 130,000 extra tradies will be needed by 2029 to meet the growing demand for new housing. The Commonwealth government's Jobs and Skills Australia agency has estimated that 67 occupations covered by the Technicians and Trades Workers category are in chronic and long-term shortage, representing about one-third of all skills shortages across the country. These shortages are pushing up construction costs and are worse in rural and regional areas, many of which are vulnerable to natural disasters. The boom in renewable energy, data centres to support AI and major infrastructure projects as well as our aging populations and increased demand in care sectors mean these shortages are neither short term nor geographically limited. Making matters worse is global competition for skilled migrants, competition between states within Australia for workers with critical skills and the leakage of skilled workers from regional areas to the cities. But this situation is also an economic opportunity for Australia. Better harnessing the skills and experience of migrants would deliver economic dividends through addressing professional workforce shortages, boosting productivity and reducing the overall cost of creating the professional workforce we need. This is evidenced in some simple numbers. It costs Australia anywhere from $180,000 to $500,000 - including Commonwealth Place Supported funding - to produce a registered doctor. For overseas trained medicos, that figure is around $28,500 - and it could be lower with more streamlined qualifications recognition. Better utilising migrant and refugee skills would also deliver a social dividend through the better integration of newcomers into the community, thus bolstering social cohesion and further supporting disadvantaged cohorts of migrants and refugees. To do this, we need to address the three pillars of the problem: providing access to gap training and qualification recognition; preparing people for Australia's workplace culture and environment; and addressing employer attitudes and bias toward international skills. Practically, this provides a collective approach to reduce the cost and simplify the processes for requalification and qualification, with clearly communicated pathways. We need to support employers to be more confident about overseas-trained staff through incentives and programs to address discrimination. This includes our looking at our recruitment practices and critically assessing whether they are a barrier to accessing migrant talent. We need to support migrants and refugees with job readiness training initiatives, such as the Skilled Professional Migrant Program delivered by my organisation, AMES Australia. Recently, we commissioned an economist to run the numbers on the effect of a national rollout of the program, a scheme that has a proven record of supporting migrants and refugees into jobs commensurate with their skills and qualifications. The paper, produced by Dr Ian Pringle, found utilising the skills and experience migrants and refugees bring with them could benefit Australia's economy by as much as $10 billion over five years. It found that supporting new arrivals to re-establish their professional careers in Australia could generate more than $2.5 billion in extra tax receipts as well as an extra $8 billion in earnings circulating in the economy over five years. What's more is that the extra access to skills could also produce a 10 per cent spike in productivity. The skills gap is an issue that has evolved again and again over time. Historically, Australia's response has been a siloed approach when what we have is an economic problem that needs a systemic all-of-the-economy response. It's a problem that we have identified but failed to properly pin down and solve over decades. That's the reason why Australia needs a national and integrated initiative to harness the skills of migrants and refugees, while reaping the economic and social benefits that it would bring before that chameleon changes its colour and disappears into the crowd again. In Australia today, like the proverbial chameleon in the crowd, there is an issue and its solution hiding in plain sight. Migrants and refugees are struggling to get jobs that befit their skills and experience. At the same time, we have a critical skills shortage. Migrants and refugees face barriers, including a lack of local experience and networks, English language proficiency or pronunciation and a lack of familiarity with Australian workplace culture and the job market. There are also difficulties and barriers, including exorbitant costs, in getting overseas qualifications recognised in Australia. These structural barriers inhibit positive migrant and refugee career outcomes. Also, employers can be reticent or unsure about hiring migrants and refugees, and mainstream employment services often are either not accessible or unsuited to migrants and refugees. Easily available statistics and research paint a picture of the effect of this situation. Migrants from non-English-speaking countries suffer persistent wage gaps, and overseas-educated migrants earn less than similarly qualified Australians, particularly those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Poor English can affect employment, with 44 per cent of migrants and refugees working below their skill level, even though 57 per cent of them hold university qualifications. And strong accents or a lack of knowledge of local industry jargon exacerbates the problem. At the same time, we know there are critical workforce shortages across a plethora of sectors. The current shortfall of GPs in Australia will rise to 3900 in 2028 and to more than 8900 in 2028; and the undersupply of nurses will rise to almost 80,000 by 2035. Engineers Australia has reported that the nation's engineering skills and labour shortage are at their highest level in a decade. And Master Builders Australia says 130,000 extra tradies will be needed by 2029 to meet the growing demand for new housing. The Commonwealth government's Jobs and Skills Australia agency has estimated that 67 occupations covered by the Technicians and Trades Workers category are in chronic and long-term shortage, representing about one-third of all skills shortages across the country. These shortages are pushing up construction costs and are worse in rural and regional areas, many of which are vulnerable to natural disasters. The boom in renewable energy, data centres to support AI and major infrastructure projects as well as our aging populations and increased demand in care sectors mean these shortages are neither short term nor geographically limited. Making matters worse is global competition for skilled migrants, competition between states within Australia for workers with critical skills and the leakage of skilled workers from regional areas to the cities. But this situation is also an economic opportunity for Australia. Better harnessing the skills and experience of migrants would deliver economic dividends through addressing professional workforce shortages, boosting productivity and reducing the overall cost of creating the professional workforce we need. This is evidenced in some simple numbers. It costs Australia anywhere from $180,000 to $500,000 - including Commonwealth Place Supported funding - to produce a registered doctor. For overseas trained medicos, that figure is around $28,500 - and it could be lower with more streamlined qualifications recognition. Better utilising migrant and refugee skills would also deliver a social dividend through the better integration of newcomers into the community, thus bolstering social cohesion and further supporting disadvantaged cohorts of migrants and refugees. To do this, we need to address the three pillars of the problem: providing access to gap training and qualification recognition; preparing people for Australia's workplace culture and environment; and addressing employer attitudes and bias toward international skills. Practically, this provides a collective approach to reduce the cost and simplify the processes for requalification and qualification, with clearly communicated pathways. We need to support employers to be more confident about overseas-trained staff through incentives and programs to address discrimination. This includes our looking at our recruitment practices and critically assessing whether they are a barrier to accessing migrant talent. We need to support migrants and refugees with job readiness training initiatives, such as the Skilled Professional Migrant Program delivered by my organisation, AMES Australia. Recently, we commissioned an economist to run the numbers on the effect of a national rollout of the program, a scheme that has a proven record of supporting migrants and refugees into jobs commensurate with their skills and qualifications. The paper, produced by Dr Ian Pringle, found utilising the skills and experience migrants and refugees bring with them could benefit Australia's economy by as much as $10 billion over five years. It found that supporting new arrivals to re-establish their professional careers in Australia could generate more than $2.5 billion in extra tax receipts as well as an extra $8 billion in earnings circulating in the economy over five years. What's more is that the extra access to skills could also produce a 10 per cent spike in productivity. The skills gap is an issue that has evolved again and again over time. Historically, Australia's response has been a siloed approach when what we have is an economic problem that needs a systemic all-of-the-economy response. It's a problem that we have identified but failed to properly pin down and solve over decades. That's the reason why Australia needs a national and integrated initiative to harness the skills of migrants and refugees, while reaping the economic and social benefits that it would bring before that chameleon changes its colour and disappears into the crowd again. In Australia today, like the proverbial chameleon in the crowd, there is an issue and its solution hiding in plain sight. Migrants and refugees are struggling to get jobs that befit their skills and experience. At the same time, we have a critical skills shortage. Migrants and refugees face barriers, including a lack of local experience and networks, English language proficiency or pronunciation and a lack of familiarity with Australian workplace culture and the job market. There are also difficulties and barriers, including exorbitant costs, in getting overseas qualifications recognised in Australia. These structural barriers inhibit positive migrant and refugee career outcomes. Also, employers can be reticent or unsure about hiring migrants and refugees, and mainstream employment services often are either not accessible or unsuited to migrants and refugees. Easily available statistics and research paint a picture of the effect of this situation. Migrants from non-English-speaking countries suffer persistent wage gaps, and overseas-educated migrants earn less than similarly qualified Australians, particularly those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Poor English can affect employment, with 44 per cent of migrants and refugees working below their skill level, even though 57 per cent of them hold university qualifications. And strong accents or a lack of knowledge of local industry jargon exacerbates the problem. At the same time, we know there are critical workforce shortages across a plethora of sectors. The current shortfall of GPs in Australia will rise to 3900 in 2028 and to more than 8900 in 2028; and the undersupply of nurses will rise to almost 80,000 by 2035. Engineers Australia has reported that the nation's engineering skills and labour shortage are at their highest level in a decade. And Master Builders Australia says 130,000 extra tradies will be needed by 2029 to meet the growing demand for new housing. The Commonwealth government's Jobs and Skills Australia agency has estimated that 67 occupations covered by the Technicians and Trades Workers category are in chronic and long-term shortage, representing about one-third of all skills shortages across the country. These shortages are pushing up construction costs and are worse in rural and regional areas, many of which are vulnerable to natural disasters. The boom in renewable energy, data centres to support AI and major infrastructure projects as well as our aging populations and increased demand in care sectors mean these shortages are neither short term nor geographically limited. Making matters worse is global competition for skilled migrants, competition between states within Australia for workers with critical skills and the leakage of skilled workers from regional areas to the cities. But this situation is also an economic opportunity for Australia. Better harnessing the skills and experience of migrants would deliver economic dividends through addressing professional workforce shortages, boosting productivity and reducing the overall cost of creating the professional workforce we need. This is evidenced in some simple numbers. It costs Australia anywhere from $180,000 to $500,000 - including Commonwealth Place Supported funding - to produce a registered doctor. For overseas trained medicos, that figure is around $28,500 - and it could be lower with more streamlined qualifications recognition. Better utilising migrant and refugee skills would also deliver a social dividend through the better integration of newcomers into the community, thus bolstering social cohesion and further supporting disadvantaged cohorts of migrants and refugees. To do this, we need to address the three pillars of the problem: providing access to gap training and qualification recognition; preparing people for Australia's workplace culture and environment; and addressing employer attitudes and bias toward international skills. Practically, this provides a collective approach to reduce the cost and simplify the processes for requalification and qualification, with clearly communicated pathways. We need to support employers to be more confident about overseas-trained staff through incentives and programs to address discrimination. This includes our looking at our recruitment practices and critically assessing whether they are a barrier to accessing migrant talent. We need to support migrants and refugees with job readiness training initiatives, such as the Skilled Professional Migrant Program delivered by my organisation, AMES Australia. Recently, we commissioned an economist to run the numbers on the effect of a national rollout of the program, a scheme that has a proven record of supporting migrants and refugees into jobs commensurate with their skills and qualifications. The paper, produced by Dr Ian Pringle, found utilising the skills and experience migrants and refugees bring with them could benefit Australia's economy by as much as $10 billion over five years. It found that supporting new arrivals to re-establish their professional careers in Australia could generate more than $2.5 billion in extra tax receipts as well as an extra $8 billion in earnings circulating in the economy over five years. What's more is that the extra access to skills could also produce a 10 per cent spike in productivity. The skills gap is an issue that has evolved again and again over time. Historically, Australia's response has been a siloed approach when what we have is an economic problem that needs a systemic all-of-the-economy response. It's a problem that we have identified but failed to properly pin down and solve over decades. That's the reason why Australia needs a national and integrated initiative to harness the skills of migrants and refugees, while reaping the economic and social benefits that it would bring before that chameleon changes its colour and disappears into the crowd again. In Australia today, like the proverbial chameleon in the crowd, there is an issue and its solution hiding in plain sight. Migrants and refugees are struggling to get jobs that befit their skills and experience. At the same time, we have a critical skills shortage. Migrants and refugees face barriers, including a lack of local experience and networks, English language proficiency or pronunciation and a lack of familiarity with Australian workplace culture and the job market. There are also difficulties and barriers, including exorbitant costs, in getting overseas qualifications recognised in Australia. These structural barriers inhibit positive migrant and refugee career outcomes. Also, employers can be reticent or unsure about hiring migrants and refugees, and mainstream employment services often are either not accessible or unsuited to migrants and refugees. Easily available statistics and research paint a picture of the effect of this situation. Migrants from non-English-speaking countries suffer persistent wage gaps, and overseas-educated migrants earn less than similarly qualified Australians, particularly those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Poor English can affect employment, with 44 per cent of migrants and refugees working below their skill level, even though 57 per cent of them hold university qualifications. And strong accents or a lack of knowledge of local industry jargon exacerbates the problem. At the same time, we know there are critical workforce shortages across a plethora of sectors. The current shortfall of GPs in Australia will rise to 3900 in 2028 and to more than 8900 in 2028; and the undersupply of nurses will rise to almost 80,000 by 2035. Engineers Australia has reported that the nation's engineering skills and labour shortage are at their highest level in a decade. And Master Builders Australia says 130,000 extra tradies will be needed by 2029 to meet the growing demand for new housing. The Commonwealth government's Jobs and Skills Australia agency has estimated that 67 occupations covered by the Technicians and Trades Workers category are in chronic and long-term shortage, representing about one-third of all skills shortages across the country. These shortages are pushing up construction costs and are worse in rural and regional areas, many of which are vulnerable to natural disasters. The boom in renewable energy, data centres to support AI and major infrastructure projects as well as our aging populations and increased demand in care sectors mean these shortages are neither short term nor geographically limited. Making matters worse is global competition for skilled migrants, competition between states within Australia for workers with critical skills and the leakage of skilled workers from regional areas to the cities. But this situation is also an economic opportunity for Australia. Better harnessing the skills and experience of migrants would deliver economic dividends through addressing professional workforce shortages, boosting productivity and reducing the overall cost of creating the professional workforce we need. This is evidenced in some simple numbers. It costs Australia anywhere from $180,000 to $500,000 - including Commonwealth Place Supported funding - to produce a registered doctor. For overseas trained medicos, that figure is around $28,500 - and it could be lower with more streamlined qualifications recognition. Better utilising migrant and refugee skills would also deliver a social dividend through the better integration of newcomers into the community, thus bolstering social cohesion and further supporting disadvantaged cohorts of migrants and refugees. To do this, we need to address the three pillars of the problem: providing access to gap training and qualification recognition; preparing people for Australia's workplace culture and environment; and addressing employer attitudes and bias toward international skills. Practically, this provides a collective approach to reduce the cost and simplify the processes for requalification and qualification, with clearly communicated pathways. We need to support employers to be more confident about overseas-trained staff through incentives and programs to address discrimination. This includes our looking at our recruitment practices and critically assessing whether they are a barrier to accessing migrant talent. We need to support migrants and refugees with job readiness training initiatives, such as the Skilled Professional Migrant Program delivered by my organisation, AMES Australia. Recently, we commissioned an economist to run the numbers on the effect of a national rollout of the program, a scheme that has a proven record of supporting migrants and refugees into jobs commensurate with their skills and qualifications. The paper, produced by Dr Ian Pringle, found utilising the skills and experience migrants and refugees bring with them could benefit Australia's economy by as much as $10 billion over five years. It found that supporting new arrivals to re-establish their professional careers in Australia could generate more than $2.5 billion in extra tax receipts as well as an extra $8 billion in earnings circulating in the economy over five years. What's more is that the extra access to skills could also produce a 10 per cent spike in productivity. The skills gap is an issue that has evolved again and again over time. Historically, Australia's response has been a siloed approach when what we have is an economic problem that needs a systemic all-of-the-economy response. It's a problem that we have identified but failed to properly pin down and solve over decades. That's the reason why Australia needs a national and integrated initiative to harness the skills of migrants and refugees, while reaping the economic and social benefits that it would bring before that chameleon changes its colour and disappears into the crowd again.

Sky News AU
a day ago
- Sky News AU
Labor's international student backflip a 'farce', as economist claims Albanese government 'selling migration and work rights'
MacroBusiness Chief Economist Leith Van Onselen has claimed the Albanese government's backflip on international students will add to the already 'massive' number of migrants seeking permanent residency, favourable labour laws and work rights. The Albanese government announced on Tuesday a 'sustainable' increase of 25,000 additional international student places for 2026, bringing the National Planning Level to 295,000. Mr van Onselen branded the government's announcement 'ridiculous' and argued the 'farce' would contribute to a decline in university standards. 'Australia has the highest concentration of international students in the world… the government needs to get the numbers down,' he told 'We've diluted teaching standards massively, there's cheating scandals and soft marking. 'The integrity's been shot, the government should be focusing on a far smaller number of high skilled, high quality students. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel. (The government) should be going for the best of the best.' The MacroBusiness economist claimed 'enrolments are at a all time high' not because of the standard of Australian degrees, but because of Australia's work rights and potential access to permanent residency. 'We're not selling education, we're selling migration and work rights,' he said. 'If you took away Australia's work rights and permanent residency, none of them would come. Perhaps a small number would come to learn, but most are coming to work and gain permanent residency.' A joint statement put out by Education Minister Jason Clare and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said all international education providers will receive at least their current allocation next year, with the Australian Tertiary Education Commission to oversee future growth in international student numbers from 2027. 'International education is an incredibly important export industry for Australia, but we need to manage its growth so it's sustainable,' Mr Clare said. 'International education doesn't just make us money, it makes us friends.' Mr Clare said the Albanese government was increasing international student intake in a way which supported 'students, universities and the national interest'. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Labor was maintaining the 'integrity of the migration system' while supporting a 'strong international education sector'. 'We are making sure student visa processing supports genuine education outcomes and our strategic priorities - including increasing provision of student accommodation,' he said. In March, Mr van Onselen wrote some domestic students had been 'forced' to help non-English-speaking students complete their courses through group assessments. 'Some tutorials have even been conducted in foreign languages, degrading the experience for local students,' he said, telling some students have claimed to have been subjected to tutorials delivered entirely in Mandarin. The economist also pointed to a 2024 Guardian article which revealed Australian academics were being pressured to pass hundreds of students suspected of plagiarism and other forms of cheating to maintain revenue streams. He claimed the government's media release on Tuesday was loaded with 'political spin' and was 'loose with the truth' about the 2026 planning level increase being eight per cent below the post-COVID peak. The eight per cent figure related to the flow of international students, which Mr van Onselen said was below the 'tidal wave' of commencements after Australia's borders reopened at the end of the pandemic. As a share of population, international students have doubled since 2012 when they made up 1.5 per cent. 'What it means is the numbers are going to keep growing, the total stock of international students is going to rise,'Mr van Onselen said. According to the Department of Education, in the year-to-date to April there were more than 794,000 international student enrolments, which Mr van Onselen said was up 105,000 since the pre-COVID peak. 'It's a disaster and hasn't boosted productivity,' he said. 'We've had 20 years of massive migration, no one can say this has made the economy or standard or living better, it's made it worse. 'They talk tough before the election and now with their stomping mandate they've gone back to their big Australia approach.'