Aussie scientists are totally investigating whether big gum trees mean big gold deposits

Gold miner Classic Minerals has convinced Australian scientists to investigate its theory that big trees indicate big gold deposits.

Classic (ASX:CLZ) says that in 2017, it noticed a correlation between the size of the trees in some parts of its West Australian Forrestania gold project — and the location of major gold deposits.

Areas of major gold deposits were covered with large gum trees, while more barren spots only had lower shrub on top of them, Classic believes.

“Classic has devoted much research and effort into proving this theory and has built up a considerable amount of data and knowledge underpinning the hypothesis that gold mineralisation is linked to tree size at Forrestania,” the miner told investors in an ASX announcement.

Now it’s convinced scientists from the CSIRO to contribute funding towards a major research project to “determine the relationship between the distribution of tree size in Forrestania, the landscape, the geology and the mineralisation at depth”.

Once the work is completed, Classic hopes the results will help guide its target generation processes.

Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ) shares over the past 12 months.

The CSIRO Innovation Connections program, which is funding the research, provides insights and grants to small and medium enterprises across Australia with turnover of between $1.5 million and $100 million that operate in five key sectors, of which mining is one.

The month project will map tree sizes, do extensive rock chip sampling and generate datasets to help get a better picture of any relationship between tree size and gold mineralisation.