Gold explorer Navarre Minerals is chasing a Victorian gold boom with their latest drilling program at their St Arnaud exploration site.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Stawell-based mineral exploration company is searching for gold deposits throughout Victoria and believes this St Arnaud site will further expand the state's gold boom in the region.
Navarre Minerals joint managing director Geoff McDermott said the company would explore a previously used mining site to try to find what others may have missed.
"There is a legacy drill whole that was drilled back in 2008 and it got a spectacular intercept of gold where they found over 1100 grams of gold, which is pretty high grade and very rich," he said.
READ MORE:
"Since this hole was drilled they have discover very high grade gold out at Fosterville and we think that this has the potential to be similar to that, but no one has followed it up."
The spike in interest comes after the 2015 discovery of gold Fosterville's mine, outside of Bendigo.
Navarre Minerals now wants to explore this old site in St Arnaud, with the hope of recreating the same kind of riches.
"What we are seeing, off the back of what is happening at the Fosterville mine, which is right near Bendigo, it has reignited the gold boom in Victoria," he said.
"Since this hole was drilled they have discover very high grade gold out at Fosterville and we think that this has the potential to be similar to that, but no one has followed it up."
"Since this hole was drilled they have discover very high grade gold out at Fosterville and we think that this has the potential to be similar to that, but no one has followed it up."
- Geoff McDermott
"Rex minerals had explored the area previously, drilling five holes and finding three intercepts. Our plan is to go in underneath this area and to test," he said.
"So we're looking at putting in three holes, so we think we have some pretty good odds to intercept some gold here, with the idea or re-establishing gold mining in the area if we are successful.
Mr McDermott said the company are hoping to strike gold, which will bring investment and jobs to the region.
READ MORE:
"We are seeing lot of companies coming into Victoria, picking up ground trying to explore and find similar riches to what has been found at Fosterville and that has brought a whole lot of new investment into the area.
"It is creating a lot of employment in the area and the hope is that we will find a couple of mines out of this. These mines generally sort of go for decades and create employment in regional Victoria. "
Mr McDermott said the exploration would be a long-term project, but was looking forward to the potential of bring large-scaling mining to the area.
"We will do an estimate of how much gold is likely to be and then we will do economic studies to see how much it is going to be to mine, is it going to be profitable, do we need to go back and drill more holes to make it bigger?"
"So they're all the questions that still need to be answered."
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the region, sign up here.
If you can see this message, you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Stawell Times-News, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and for allowing us to continue telling Stawell's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great town.