.
Glass Earth Otago Permits (light green) and the
survey area.
The RESOLVE system.
B2 Squirrel with a GPS and a radar altimeter towing
the magnetometer and EM coils in the drone.
Read about Glass Earth's North Island
prospects on the
North Island page.
FUGRO staff in front of the 9 metre long RESOLVE
drone at Mosgiel just west of Dunedin at the
beginning of the survey.
The Otago region has produced over 8M oz  of alluvial gold since 1861 and hosts the
7.2Moz Macraes Gold Mine (Oceana Gold Limited).
For information on the science involved in
Glass Earth's Exploration approach and
the regulatory environment, see the

Background
Information page.
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Footage Supplied by Aeroptics / Heliworks
www.aeroptics.com    www.heliworks.co.nz
Mesothermal gold exploration activities in NZ's South Island
TSX-V: GEL / NZAX:GEL
2007 AIRBORNE GEOPHYSICAL CAMPAIGN

In August 2007, Glass Earth completed its Otago Region
airborne geophysical survey which covered an area of
around 13,000sq km and is the largest airborne survey of
this nature ever flown in New Zealand.
The survey was contracted to Fugro Airborne Surveys. It
was planned to obtain a detailed geological understanding
of the area, allowing targeting of new areas with the
potential for hardrock and/or alluvial gold. The survey
involved the cutting-edge helicopter-borne “RESOLVE
TM
EM system combined with a magnetic gradiometer.
This system targets the top 100m of the earth’s crust (the
zone of interest for Glass Earth). Two helicopters each
towing a 9m Resolve
TM drone flew over the survey area
in a series of parallel lines, each 300m from the last. In
total, the two helicopters flew in excess of 50,000
kilometres and gathered swathes of very encouraging
geophysical data which is now guiding on-ground
exploration.
Through this approach, Glass Earth is rewriting the geology
of Central Otago.

Click here for more details about the technology and
science behind the Otago Region Airborne Survey.
2007-08 ON-GROUND EXPLORATION

Glass Earth on-ground exploration work commenced
in September 2007 in the Otago Region. Several
teams, totalling 20 field staff, undertook soil, rock
chip and stream sediment sampling combined with
geological mapping over New Zealand summer
(September 07 - May 08).

In total, well over 8,000 soil samples, just short of
1,700 rock chip samples and over 750 stream
sediment samples (BLEG and 80-mesh, along with
480 pan concentrate samples collected to study the
morphology of the gold in streams - see photo left)
over 24 prospects have been collected and assayed
between November 07 and September 08, leading to
the advancement of 5 prospects to drilling and a
further 19 following through.

A smaller, more specialised team was then engaged
in drilling programmes concentrated on the lower
elevation prospects accessible in the winter months
(June - September in this region).

Two field crews also continued sampling over the
areas where snow hadn't taken over. Augers are
being used in soil sampling to pierce through the
thick layer of loess which covers many prospects,
and obtain samples from as deep as 2m (see photo
left).
Results from the on-ground sampling, combined to continuous interpretation of the
airborne geophysical data, will continue to deliver new and more focussed targets for
further testing and drilling throughout the year.
DRILLING COMMENCED

Drilling commenced in the Otago Region
in June 2008, beginning with Glass Earth's
SparrowHawk target, which lies on
Rough Ridge in Central Otago.

SparrowHawk was identified though the
airborne geophysical data and recognised
as a zone of greenstone coincident with
strong regional gold stream geochemistry.
In-situ rock chips assaying up to 131
grams/tonne gold, indicating a new
significantly gold mineralised system were
collected.

2 oriented diamond drillholes were
completed in August 2008 - the results
(logging and assays) provided invaluable
stratigraphic information, pointing to a
promising zone in SparrowHawk South, to
be further investigated.

From SparrowHawk, the rig was moved to
the
Gold & Pine prospect, where an
initial drillhole, while returning no
economic gold results, confirmed the
presence of the pelitic shear targeted by
Glass Earth, validating geophysical
hypotheses.

Most recently, a reconnaissance drillhole
was completed on Glass Earth's
SheepWash prospect, just 4 kms south
of the Macraes gold mine, where
coincident magnetic-electromagnetic
anomalies demonstrate a potential
shear-zone sub-paralleling the
Hyde-Macraes shear, and match
anomalous gold arsenic in soil
geochemistry. Assay results are pending.
top: the rig set up at SparrowHawk
bottom: geologists discussing the core, at
the on-site core shed installed at Solandra
below: drilling at SheepWash, the snow
barely melted away
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