Austria is a very mining-friendly country. The Austrian governments plan for mineral resources even served as a blueprint for a notice of the EU to its member states: “In the EU the regulatory framework has to be structured in such a way as to encourage a supply with mineral resources from European sources.”

The Styrian Alps once had been famous for their abundance in gold and silver occurences.

Our gold project is situated in the mineral-rich district of Styria, about 120 km to the south-east of Salzburg and about 85 km to the north-west of Graz. It covers the south-eastern slopes of the Woelzer Tauern, west of the large Poelstal fault zone and comprises 48 granted claims in the gold bearing ore zone near the village of Pusterwald. This area has a well known history of mining – mainly for gold, silver, copper and lead – as far back as to the early Middle Ages. Historical artifacts even date back to the Bronze Age, to the Illyrians, the Celts and the Romans.

Nowadays the exploration of ancient mining areas with modern methods is common practice worldwide in discovering as yet unknown mineralization/ore bodies.

Key facts

• 48 granted claims near the village of Pusterwald comprising a total area of about 20 km²
• Mining activities documented since 1588, but probable since Celtic and Roman times
• 14 historical high-grade occurrences of gold are known at surface
• Problems with dewatering impacted on mining activities in historical times
• Numerous historical gold mines are found within the licence area
• Gold grades of up to 59 g/t with an average of 17.7 g/t have been published in the mining literature on the area ‘Plettenkar’ in the year 1952
• All mining experts agree on the abundant occurrence of ore in the ‘gold-area’ Pusterwald
• Recently taken surface samples from the Plettenkar, yielded 9.45; 9.93; 10.9; 14.15; 14.45; 16.85; 23.4; 29.2; 37; 41.1 and as top value 85.2 g/t gold (ALS/OMAC Laboratory)
• Many strong geophysical anomalies, using Magnetic, VLF, RMT, IP, SP methods, have recently been discovered
• Good contacts with the local authorities and landowners
• Resuming mining activities is welcomed in the region

Planning further exploration

A large exploration programme is planned in many interesting parts of the project area, at first focussing on the Plettenkar-area:

• Systemically collecting surface samples for laboratory analysis
• Additional geophysics in order to analyse the geological structure
• Selecting locations for diamond core drilling
• First estimate of the size of the ore bodies

The results of many shallow drill holes in connection with the results of geophysical exploration and geochemical analyses will allow planning for deeper drilling.