Upgrading and Expansion Of The San Gonzalo Mine

VANCOUVER, BC - Avino Silver and Gold Mines Ltd. reported that upgrading and expansion of its San Gonzalo mine (SG) on the Avino property near Durango, Mexico continues to progress rapidly. At San Gonzalo, activities in February were centered on underground development and mining as well as delivering new underground mining equipment. At the main Avino Mine (ET), efforts have been focused on water treatment and de-watering to allow access to lower levels for exploration and development.

Anew 250 tpd circuit (Circuit 2) will initially be used to process remaining historic aboveground stockpiles left from past mining of the main Avino Vein. The Company expects the stockpiles will provide enough mill feed for approximately seven months of operations. During the third quarter of 2012, Circuit 1 (250 tpd) produced 50,074 ounces of silver equivalent (calculated) from the same stock piles, Avino expects output will be similar from Circuit 2 once it's activated in Q2 of this year. After the historic stockpiles have been depleted, the new circuit will have the ability to process additional mill feed from the San Gonzalo and Avino Mines as they are developed at depth.

Circuit 1 will continue to process high-grade mill feed from the San Gonzalo Mine.

Circuit 3 is scheduled to begin processing new material from the main Avino Mine in Q1 2014. In the final full year of production prior to shut down in 2001, Circuit 3 produced 1,733,565 ounces of silver equivalent (calculated) at the processing rate of 1,000 tpd.

The Company has commissioned an independent engineering firm to assemble a new property wide technical report that will include new resource estimates for San Gonzalo and the main Avino Mine. Avino expects to receive the report in April.