Gold Exploration

Victorian Exploration

Current exploration in Victoria is aimed at locating copper and gold mineralisation near the Thursdays Gossan copper deposit of the Stavely project and the Ararat copper deposit of the Ararat project, both in western Victoria.

The project area has produced about 600,000 ounces of alluvial gold, for which no significant bedrock sources have been found, and hosts one known VMS-style copper deposit.

Previous explorers used various geophysical techniques to identify potential basalt domes, similar in style to that which hosts the Magdala gold deposit at Stawell, a 6 million ounce gold producer which is still in operation. Newcrest confirmed that Langi Logan, approximately 30 kilometres south-east of Stawell, is a basalt dome and intersected 2 metres at 9.2 grams of gold per tonne at the contact.

A detailed gravity survey to identify further basalt domes under shallow cover south of Langi Logan is planned for 2010. The company has also recently been awarded a Victorian Government grant of $66,000 towards the drilling of two diamond holes at two other Langi Logan style gold targets, south of Langi Logan.

The Fairview gold prospect is located approximately 1 kilometre south-east of the Junction 1 copper prospect, and forms a strong and continuous gold in soils anomaly, with peak values of 1.1 grams per tonne of gold. A detailed ground-based gravity survey in 2009 identified low-density features at Fairview, which are interpreted as porphyry units thought to be significant in the introduction of gold mineralisation. The exploration programme for 2010 includes surface trenching and drilling at Fairview.

Soil sampling of the Balbeggie gold prospect, approximately 4 kilometres to the west of the Fairview gold prospect, identified a more modest gold, zinc, lead and copper anomaly.

Further east in central Victoria, the Heathcote tenement covers 222 square kilometers just north of Heathcote and about 43 kilometres east of the Bendigo goldfields. The tenement is flanked by gold operations at Fosterville and Costerfield, to the west and east, respectively