The Victorian government is now just one step away from granting Kalamazoo Resources permission to explore a 44km square-stretch of land very close to Fosterville's gold mine.

That is the same area where a rival company has found huge veins of gold-bearing rock deep below the surface, triggering a land rush among explorers keen to strike it rich.

Being allowed to explore land 30km away from what is arguably the world's richest mine would be a major win, Kalamazoo exploration manager Luke Mortimer says.

"Everyone wants a piece of the land near Fosterville, including ourselves," he said.

The company briefed investors on its new push to complete the second stage of the process with the government on Tuesday with a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Dr Mortimer told the Bendigo Advertiser the government was now essentially conducting a series of checks to make sure Kalamazoo was up to the task.

"So the first stage was the government accepting our application, the next is them giving us permission to start exploring," he said

Miners believe the new land sits atop the Axe Creek Fault, a huge underground rock system that could contain the kind of gold mineralisation found by Fosterville miners.

The fault runs for hundreds of kilometres from north to south, deep beneath Victoria's surface.

"Although located between several major goldfields, it [the area] is considered under-explored as it has not been subject to any systematic modern exploration and no known historical drilling," Kalamazoo told investors.

Kalamazoo already has the right to explore huge swathes of land throughout central Victoria including around Castlemaine.

It is also among a flood of exploration companies that have been competing for permission to look at huge tracts of land miners have rarely had a chance to turn their attention to.

Kalamazoo expects the government to make a ruling on who can explore a separate chunk of land even close to Fosterville by the end of the month.

Elsewhere in Victoria, companies have rushed to inject money into exploration zones they already have access to.

A recently released Earth Resources Regulation report found that exploration spending had more than doubled over five years to $124 million in 2019-20.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: