TOP STORY: Prospecting firm keen to reopen old Bay mine

By Graham Skellern
A New Zealand company is planning to drill for gold in the Western Bay within the next six months - nearly 80 years after a significant amount of the precious metal was taken out of the ground.
Wellington-based Glass Earth has already completed aerial surveys using sophisticated three dimensional satellite technology to see through the volcanic surface.
It has targeted an area surrounding the old Muirs Reef mining operation on No 4 Road out the back of Te Puke for a substantial gold discovery.
Glass Earth has mapped 14 new target sites in a hilly 2km long by 2.5km wide area between No 3 and No 4 roads. It has been attracted there by the quartz vein running through the land.
"We flew over this area last year and it had similar visual and geophysical characteristics to Martha Hill - there was a low magnetic [rock] zone surrounding known gold veins," said the company's chief operating officer Simon Henderson.
"We believe it's a good gold prospect because there are other parts of the Muirs Reef system that haven't been seen before. We need to take the next step and drill," he said.
"It's a gamble and it's like looking for a needle in a haystack but we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't have high hopes."
The old gold mining operation, called Te Puke Goldfields, is found on the Muir family's 600ha farm and orchard nearly 7km up No 4 Rd. Today the concrete foundations are the only remnants of the mine.
The original owner, George Muir, extracted 43,000 ounces of gold during the 1920s and the mine has been closed ever since.
Mr Henderson was involved in further exploration of Muirs Reef in 1984 when he worked for Mineral Resources .
"There were encouraging results then but the interest waned when Mineral Resources moved back to Australia," he said.
During the 1960s the white quartz rock was quarried and Mr Henderson said there could have been gold pieces in it, even then.
"We know it's an area of gold mineralisation and our forensic approach will guide us to where we should be exploring," he said.
A director of Glass Earth is John Dow, former chairman and managing director of Newmont Australia - the world's second largest gold company which operates Martha Hill in Waihi. The company has just issued a prospectus seeking to raise $10 million to complete "an aggressive" exploration programme in New Zealand over the next two years.
Glass Earth has obtained the largest number of mineral exploration permits in the country and has pinpointed four key prospective areas covering nearly 33,000km and 105 "target" sites.
They are: Hauraki, adjacent to the world-class Martha mine producing 10 million ounces of gold, Muirs near Te Puke, central volcanic region from Tauranga to Taupo but centering on Tahunaatara 40km southwest of Rotorua, and Otago alongside Macraes mine with a potential for seven million ounces.
Martha and Macraes, the country's only two productive gold mines, reap $350 million a year in overseas earnings - bigger than the wine export industry.
Glass Earth is on the lookout for a new gold deposit of one million ounces, worth $1 billion before being mined, based on the current price of $US610 an ounce.
Mr Henderson is unsure whether Muirs Reef could produce that sort of quantity but anything less could still be commercially viable because the gold could be processed at Waihi to save costs.
George Muir's grandson, Alex, who now owns the No 4 Rd property, said he saw a survey plane flying over and has since been approached by Glass Earth to begin drilling.
"The reef is high on our land overlooking the Papamoa Hills and there's probably a bit of gold there.
"But we haven't yet finally decided whether they can come and drill - we don't want them wrecking our farming and orchard operation," he said.