The Aumax (97 Zone) occurrence is located on the eastern side of Cayoosh Creek, approximately 16 kilometres south west of Lillooet and at an elevation of approximately 1570 metres.
The region is underlain by the Mississippian to Jurassic Bridge River Complex (Group), which is exposed along a broad, complex, antiformal structure that plunges northwest. The group consists mainly of a thick sequence of bedded chert, chert argillite and argillite intercalated with altered basaltic flows (greenstone) and minor limestone. The greenstone is altered to listwanite (quartz- carbonate alteration) and flooded by pyrite. Most of the Bridge River Group exhibits pumpellyite- prehnite metamorphic grade. These have been intruded by Late Cretaceous to Paleogene granodioritic rocks.
Locally, a stockwork system of quartz veins, up to 1.2 metres wide and traced for 150 metres, is hosted by a shear zone in a silica- altered greenstone and a large felsic-chloritic dike. The veins strike at 300 degrees and dip 60 degrees north. Sulphide mineralization consists of tetrahedrite, tennantite, chalcopyrite, galena and pyrite, with malachite, azurite and hematite alteration.
In 1997, a grab sample assayed 6.2 grams per tonne gold, 2603 grams per tonne silver and 0.23 per cent copper (Assessment Report 26236). In 1999, a channel sample (AR99+13) assayed 5.3 grams per tonne gold and 583.6 grams per tonne silver over 0.8 metre (Assessment Report 26236).
Another zone of mineralization is reported 150 metres to the north west and consists of a calcareous quartz breccia with oxidized vugs and sericite. In 2005, a grab sample (11E016402) assayed 0.60 grams per tonne gold and 534 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 35703).
In 1991, the area was prospected as the Zee claim. During 1997 through 1999, the area was prospected as the Aumax claims. In 2004, Avino Silver & Gold Mines completed a program of rock and soil sampling. The following year three diamond drill holes, totalling 145.0 metres, were completed on the 97 zone with low assay results. During 2012 through 2016, Cresval Capital completed programs of rock and soil sampling and geological mapping.
