Papua New Guinea's Crater Mountain is to be mapped out three-dimensionally to see if the gold there has potential for open-pit mining.
Land owners have been mining gold in the area in the Eastern Highlands since it was discovered in 2005, and now Australian-registered Anomaly Resources and Aura Gold are sending in a team to analyse the gold's grade.
The Chairman of Anomaly Resources, Peter Macnab, says the next four months involves extracting rocks and finding the amount of gold and other minerals in them.
"We'll be drilling to at least 300 metres depth, probably 4, maybe 500 metres depth, and then we can build up a 3-dimensional picture of the grades that exist and make a decision on whether it's feasible to mine it or not."
He says it could be years before mining begins, but if successful, it would add to the region's cash economy.