GOLD explorers are sinking their drills beneath two disused mines near Toolleen.
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Their hunt will take them deep beneath the "Golden Camel", an open pit mine where 400 ounces of gold was unearthed in 2017.
Mining company Catalyst Metals believes there could be more gold beneath the Golden Camel.
It has told the Australian Stock Exchange that too few exploration drills have been sunk past 70 metres.
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The company has pointed to goldmines in Bendigo and Fosterville.
Miners in both towns have previously found "high grade shoots" of gold deep underground because they found shallow deposits and decided to dig deeper.
Fosterville's Kirkland Lake Gold is arguably one of the richest gold mines in the world right now. Catalyst's exploration zone is only 20 kilometres east.
It covers 85 square kilometres of ground, close to what geologists believe is an ancient former seabed that could be hiding as much as 32 million ounces of gold.
"We've learned a lot about Victorian gold in the last 10 years. We have different ideas about how gold might form," Mr Kay said.
Any riches the Camel still hides could need to be dug up using underground mining methods, Catalyst told the ASX.
The company also plans to start exploring in a nearby Toolleen gold zone, close to an old site believed to have last been mined in the 1990s.
Its drills could sink to about 150 metres, well below the shallower diggings where past miners found "several impressive gold interactions", the company told the ASX.
That project should start by the end of the month.
Catalyst's latest drilling program is not only about the search for gold.
It is also about gaining a majority ownership of two exploration licences from Golden Camel Mining.
The companies agreed in 2018 that Catalyst would earn a 50.1 per cent interest in the exploration licences if it spent $650,000 on exploration within five years.
Catalyst expects it will earn that interest by the time its latest drilling programs end.
The company has turned to the area after an intensive summer of exploration on top of farming land north of Bendigo.
"It's a quiet time for us because crops have gone in. We were drilling there up until maybe three or four weeks ago," Mr Kay said.
"We move around because we want to make sure we do the best thing by the farmers."
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