There's Gold In Them Thar Western Victoria Plains, Say Scientists
The Age
Wednesday August 27, 2008
UP TO 1200 tonnes of gold worth more than $36 billion may be lying underground in western Victoria, geologists have revealed.
Several major goldfields could be undiscovered in a 30,000- square-kilometre area stretching from north of Stawell and Horsham to the Murray River. The GeoScience Victoria study says there is a high probability of at least 200 tonnes of gold in the studied area.Victoria's annual gold production is about seven tonnes, or 200,000 ounces.The findings, to be presented today at the Resources Victoria Conference, follow earlier research that estimated there could be 1000 tonnes of gold in an adjacent 10,000-square-kilometre area running from north of Bendigo to the Murray.Taken together, the research by GeoScience Victoria - part of the Department of Primary Industries - shows there could be up to 2200 tonnes of gold waiting to be discovered in the state's north-west, worth close to $67 billion dollars.Geologist Vladimir Lisitsin warned there were large uncertainties built into gold estimates, and further work was needed to obtain more accurate predictions.
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