Golden shine to green, green grass of Kaeo farm

Expansion has been put on hold until it can be proven whether the strike is horizontal or vertical.

When investment firm Emerald Group of Companies bought a Northland farm about four years ago, it was thinking about subdivision, tourism and a farming institute - now it's thinking about gold.

Chief executive of Emerald Group (which should not be confused with the Emerald Group investment company of Diane Foreman) Kevin Whitley said the company has had to rethink its business strategy in light of a possible gold strike on its 1000-head dairy farm at Kaeo.

"We had one of our guys walking up the stream and he came back with dog-tooth quartz ... I knew what it meant, that there was a good chance there was gold on the property," he said.

The quartz was given to Perth-based mining company Aurora Minerals about two years ago which confirmed there was gold in the sample.

Emerald Mining was then set up to form a joint venture called Hazelbrook with NZX-listed Aurora and test drilling began last October.

Whitley has mixed feeling about the possible gold strike.

"In some respects, obviously, it's a bit novel, it's a bit exciting. But then when the brain kicks in ... the reality sometimes is quite different, when it is frustrating other business strategies that could have done just as well."

Emerald Tourism planned to build a lodge to take advantage of fishing, hunting and a location with views over Matauri Bay.

Emerald Farming 2002, meanwhile, intended building an NZQA-accredited training institute for the next generation of local and overseas dairy farmers. These plans, as well as a small subdivision for future investment, went on hold when Aurora arrived with a prospecting licence covering Emerald's farm and other adjoining properties.

The farming operation and development plans could continue if the gold is found to be running vertically, requiring a relatively small shaft area. A horizontal strike, however, would require a much wider operation, forcing Emerald to leave the other plans on hold until the mining was finished.

Whitley hopes to know the results of the test drilling within the next two years. If gold is found then resource consent would be needed to begin mining, with any excavations back-filled, finished with topsoil and returned to pasture afterwards.

Whitley hasn't caught gold fever and is keeping his feet firmly on, or perhaps rather above, ground.