The company says it has successfully collected “cold hard facts” to prove its Ribbon Repeat Theory - the most recent triumph being the intersection of a predicted new ribbon 6km to the north of the Swan decline.

This result matches previously successful intersections at the Deborah line of reef, 250m beneath the main historic workings and at the Sheepshead line of reef intersected about 300m below the historically mined S2 ribbon.

“It has taken a long time to convince people of the Ribbon Repeat Theory,” Buerger said.

“We’re happy with the drilling results so far - at the New Chum line to the north of the portal and Sheepshead and Deborah line in the south - and believe they successfully prove stacked mineralisation at Bendigo.

“The 6km difference between these unmined ribbons indicates the theory holds across the New Bendigo goldfield.

“These developments have helped to convince the market too, our shares rose to 20c on the back of this new intersection.”

Market support is vital to the survival of the New Bendigo project. The current exploration bill totals $42 million and the company estimates it will cost $70-100 million to bring the project to its next stage of development.

With $18 million left in Bendigo’s coffers, to proceed the Swan Decline from 500m vertical (3200m in length) to 700m vertical (4300m in total), the company may have to look to the market to generate more capital.

“That is something we are considering at the moment,” Buerger said.

“We’re considering a plethora of options right now, such as placement to the shareholders or another option could be to look to other mining companies for funds.”

Bendigo Mining believes the mineralised ribbons stack to 1500m and possibly beyond.

Historical records state the average grade in each ribbon was 10-15 grams per tonne and historical production shows miners consistently returned about 120,000oz for each kilometre of reef mined. From this Buerger extrapolates New Bendigo has 10 millionoz to 1500m.

“Because of the quality of the gold, we believe the mine will be a very low-cost operation, with costs of about $200-250/oz of gold,” he said.

Conventional wisdom said relatively small saddle reefs dominated the Bendigo goldfields, however, the mineralised ribbon formation currently being proved at New Bendigo makes it one of the few such mines in the world. A similar kind of operation can be found in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The portal to the mine stands outside of the historic town of Bendigo and according to Buerger all necessary red tape for mining has already been cleared.

“It won’t be a big deal mining 1500m underground,” he said.

“In South Africa gold mines run as deep at 3000m with no hassles, once we move onto the next stages, we plan to mine and process beneath the surface.”

Buerger said the company remains on track to start preliminary mining at the end of 2001 or the start of 2002.

“We are currently doing conceptual studies,” he said.

“It’s not the processing that’s the problem, it’s the sampling because with nuggety gold you need such a big sample,” he said.

Although the nuggety nature of Bendigo gold makes it difficult to determine its average grade, historical data illustrates the average ribbon was 3-5m wide, 30m high and 100m long.

The company has yet to prove numbers of ribbons at New Bendigo, but it is potentially an enormously profitable mine.

And Buerger has a lot riding on it, he currently sits as one of the top twenty shareholders in the company.

“Those that have come on board understand the dream, and when you think about it, it’s a fairly sensible story,” he said.