KEY POINTS:
Heritage Gold says results of the air and ground-based exploration programmes near Waihi are "encouraging" and the company says it wants to extend its activities near the town.
In an announcement to the NZX on Friday Heritage said it believed that it had targets in Waihi North and Golden Valley that could potentially represent gold-bearing structures.
In particular, the high-resolution aeromagnetic/radiometric survey of the Waihi North, Waitete and Golden Valley tenements has revealed several significant broad demagnetised zones which are often associated with areas of hydrothermal alteration and gold mineral deposition in this district.
One such area in Golden Valley rivals the size of the footprint of the adjacent Martha and Favona gold deposits.
Based on exploration results so far, Heritage plans to lodge an application for an appraisal extension on its Waihi North permit, the company said.
Drilling of the geophysical and geochemical anomalies which could indicate the presence of gold at Waihi North has begun.
To date Heritage has spent $1.8 million in exploration on Waihi North and is currently spending $200,000 on drilling targets identified from these surveys.
Heritage Gold is a 21-year-old company with exploration permits around Waihi, including the Talisman Mine which has produced more than 1 million oz of gold and 3 million oz of silver during its peak mining period.
Heritage owns 33 per cent of Broken Hill Cobalt Ltd, a company that is looking to develop a cobalt project at Thackaringa, New South Wales, and also holds exploration licences for uranium in Australia's Northern Territory, historically a major uranium producing area and currently the focus of extensive exploration.
