Hunt is on for new English gold mine

A COMPANY hoping to start England's first commercial gold mine will resume exploratory drilling today at a secret location.

Five 100-metre-deep holes will be sunk by Crediton Minerals in the mid Devon countryside at 150-metre intervals from the original borehole drilled last August.

The drilling will take place over a three-week period after initial assay results from the first hole which showed "four distinct horizons of gold enrichment within the core".

"Following intense mineralogical and chemical follow up of the gold occurrence in the first bore hole, Crediton is satisfied that it is fully justified on continuing the exploration to confirm the presence of gold over a wider area," said a spokesman for the company.

While the drilling goes on, other exploration work will be carried out at a number of other sites.

Grains of gold were discovered during last summer's pounds 200,000 test drilling programme in a 45 kilometre-long, 12 kilometre-wide band of agricultural land called the Crediton Trough.

It could be two or three years from the original drilling before the company could be certain it had an "economic ore body".