Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: ASM) (NYSE American: ASM) (FSE: GV6) released its consolidated financial results for the Company’s third quarter ended September 30, 2020. The Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis can be viewed on the Company’s web site at www.avino.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

David Wolfin, President and CEO commented, “Avino’s operating performance for the third quarter was directly impacted due to the strike action at the mine by the Company’s unionized workers, which halted production activities during Q3 2020. In October, we were pleased to announce that an agreement had been reached and the strike at the mine had ended. Currently, we are working towards restarting production and mining operations.

I would like to thank all our stakeholders for their support, patience and understanding during the quarter. In addition, I would like to extend my gratitude to the management team in Mexico who negotiated a successful and peaceful resolution.”

Third Quarter 2020 Financial Highlights

• Cash balance of $12.5 million
• Working capital of $16.9 million
• Reduction in debt liabilities by $2.0 million during the quarter, and $6.1 million for the year to date 2020.
• Revenues from mining operations of $2.7 million
• Mine operating losses of $0.2 million, including $0.9 million in standby costs
• Losses before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization² of $4.3 million
• Net losses from continuing operations of $4.6 million, or $0.05 per share
• Adjusted losses² of $0.7 million
• Consolidated cash production costs², net of standby costs, of $12.56 per silver equivalent payable ounce¹
• Consolidated all-in sustaining cash costs, including standby costs (“AISC”)² of $31.61 per silver payable equivalent ounce¹

Financial Highlights

Costs and Capital Expenditures:

Capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2020 were $0.4 million compared to $2.3 million for Q3 2019. All necessary capital expenditures continued during the third quarter, as the Company finalized key upgrades to mill equipment to boost gold recoveries, as well as secured deposits on long-lead items for the planned dry-stack tailings storage facility (“TSF #2”).  

Operational Highlights and Overview

During the quarter no production mining activities took place due to the work stoppage at the Avino Mine.

Operational Overview

Consolidated Production Tables

Option Agreement – Silver Wolf Exploration Ltd. (formerly Gray Rock Resources Ltd.) (“Silver Wolf”)

On August 13, 2020 the Company announced that it had entered into an option agreement with Silver Wolf in which they were granted the exclusive right to acquire an 100% interest in the Ana Maria and El Laberinto properties in Mexico, in consideration of the issuance to Avino of share purchase warrants to acquire 300,000 common shares of Silver Wolf at an exercise price of $0.20 per share for a period of 36 months from the date of the TSX Venture Exchange’s final acceptance of the Option Agreement.

By divesting of these non-core two assets, Avino limits the costs of maintaining these properties, and retains exposure to any exploration upside through the issuance of Silver Wolf purchase shares or warrants. In addition, Avino will have a right of first refusal to purchase and process any ore or concentrate extracted from the properties for processing.

Exercise of Warrants

During the third quarter, the Company received proceeds of over $3 million from the exercise of warrants. The Company will use the proceeds to execute on its operational plans of constructing TSF#2 and on exploration on other areas of the Avino Mine.

Non-IFRS Measures

The financial results in this news release include references to cash flow per share, cash cost per silver equivalent ounce, and all-in sustaining cash cost per silver equivalent ounce, EBITDA, and adjusted earnings/losses, all of which are non-IFRS measures. These measures are used by the Company to manage and evaluate operating performance of the Company’s mining operations, and are widely reported in the silver and gold mining industry as benchmarks for performance, but do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS, and are disclosed in addition to the prescribed IFRS measures provided in the Company’s financial statements and MD&A.

Qualified Person(s)

Peter Latta, P.Eng, MBA, Avino’s VP Technical Services, who is a qualified person within the context of National Instrument 43-101 and has  reviewed and approved the technical data in this document.