What some have called a 'second gold rush' is now under way, as large mining companies and amateur fossickers use modern technology. 9News
is found in "quartz reefs": bands of hard white quartz. Formed some 400 million years ago, these gold-bearing reefs may be kilometres long, but are typically less than a metre wide, and slant steeply into the ground.But if the gold hunters were lucky and discovered a new reef, they could follow it a long way, along the surface and underground.READ MORE:Victoria's remarkable gold rush history is the subject of a World Heritage bid.
These places tell moving stories of the gold rush era: of colonial theft, of cruelty and exploitation, of skill, courage and hope. But after the gold rush was over, the gold was still there underground. It was just harder to find, or harder to get at.Victoria's second gold rush is less eye-catching and more high-tech than the first.