An Australian mining company has started searching for gold that could be hidden under farmland in the South Waikato.

The company will take core samples of rock from about 150 sites on land previously explored for gold as far back as the 1970s and will add to data suggesting there is enough of the precious metal hidden underground to commence full-scale mining of the area.

Larvotto Resources began geochemical drilling at its Ohakuri gold project site last week and is targeting the Ohakuri and Maleme fault zones that could be "higher-grade gold feeder zones" located in the Taupō Volcanic Zone.

The testing sites are located in and around Ohakuri Rd, near Ātiamuri, about halfway between Rotorua and Taupō, the majority of which is privately owned farmland.

The area is a combination of fertile rolling hills and steep farmland with Lake Ohakuri to the south-east and the Waikato River to the west.

Larvotto Resources managing director Ron Heeks​ said the feeder zones they are drilling into "hold the potential to be the source of the extensive gold mineralisation in the Ohakuri project area".

"We believe that a lot more information can be gained from obtaining more detail of the geochemistry of the Central Zone and allow for a reinterpretation of the area.

"Once better defined, the zones will be tested at depth by geophysics prior to diamond drilling," he said.

Contractors using a small tractor-mounted drilling rig will dig about 150 holes to a depth of around 10m to penetrate the local ash layer to take core samples of the rock beneath.

However, there’s a lot more work to do before any commercial mining occurs.

“Previous exploration by several companies dating back to the 1970s has delineated a large, lower-grade zone of gold mineralisation,” the company’s prospectus states.

“Significantly, feeder zones that generated this mineralisation were not targetted during these early phases of exploration. These potentially higher-grade zones of mineralisation are the current focus of exploration for Larvotto.”

Heeks said a review of past exploration results found they were limited, and in some cases holes were not deep enough to penetrate the ash layer, and some areas remained untested.

“Infilling the old geochemical data with new results will allow for a better interpretation of the mineralisation before further drilling is undertaken.”

Once exploratory drilling work was complete, core samples would be analysed and if that analysis revealed anything of further interest, diamond drilling would then be used to test those areas at greater depths.

Larvotto Resources has teamed up with New Zealand-based company Zedex, that holds an exploration permit for the region until December 2024, and has a two-year budget of AUD$1.1 million.

Attempts to contact Heeks and Larvotto Resources for further information have not yet been responded to.

Credit: Stuff.co.nz