A Melbourne Mining Club panel on the state's gold sector heard yesterday that the money spent on gold exploration had jumped 420% in five years to A$42 million in the December quarter.

Much of the interest is due to the success of the Fosterville mine outside Bendigo, which went from a struggling 100,000 ounce per annum producer in 2014 to Australia's third-largest gold miner with 2020 output of a record 640,000oz, thanks to the discovery of the high-grade Swan Zone.

Former Kirkland Lake vice president, Australian operations Ian Holland said the ongoing success of the sector rested on the meeting together of ideas and capital.

"The great success of Fosterville really was staying in the game long enough and continuing to reinvest to be in a position where you could make that sort of discovery," he said.

Arete acquired the mothballed Stawell mine in late 2017 from Kirkland Lake and returned it to production in early 2019.

The Magdala mine had historically produced more than 2.3 million ounces of gold.

"We came to the conclusion Victorian gold wasn't done," Olsen said.

The venture has been a success, with the operation now mill-constrained and considering a tripling of throughput to 3 million tonnes per annum.

Olsen said exploration was adding about 500,000oz to Stawell's resource base every year.

Recent drilling at the mine returned an eye-watering 1206m at 6 grams per tonne gold.

"The stories of Victorian gold's demise are somewhat overdone," Olsen said.

"You don't need many more Magdala Domes to have a successful business."

Olsen pointed to data from the Geological Survey of Victoria which suggested there was still 30Moz of gold to be discovered.

"We think there's more than that in the Stawell Corridor alone," he said.

Holland, who now runs junior explorer Navarre Minerals, agreed, describing the Stawell Corridor as "elephant country".

Yesterday, Navarre reported high-grade drill hits from its Stawell Corridor project, ahead of a maiden resource later this month.

The Resolution lode returned 0.5m at 55.7gpt gold from 508.9m, while the Adventure lode returned 3.2m at 9.6gpt gold from 263.3m, including 0.9m at 12.5gpt.

Navarre has seven rigs operating at its projects across the state.

Other solid drilling results to come out of Victoria this week included 19m at 9.39gpt gold, 19.2gpt silver and 0.61% copper from 28m, including 3m at 41.1gpt gold, 92.9gpt silver and 1.52% copper at Dart Mining's Granite Flat prospect in the state's north-east, and 1m at 9.5gpt gold from 44m from 39m at Fosterville South Exploration's Lauriston project near Bendigo.

Catalyst Metals also hit visible gold at Four Eagles, with a best hit of 1.35m at 117gpt gold from 326.1m.

Kirkland Lake head of Australian operations Ion Hann said he was optimistic of further discovery.

"If we drill holes, we're going to find it and the mines will be there," he said.

Hann questioned whether the government would be able to keep up with the industry.

"As a state, are we prepared for that? The investment stream is coming and if we're delayed, we're going to miss it," he said.

John Krbaleski, head of resources at the government's Earth Resources, said the government recognised how important mining would be to the state's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that the government was also working on building relationships between the government and communities.

"We've been out there demystifying exploration," Krbaleski said.

Earlier this week, Kirkland Lake launched its $12 million Australian Community Partnership Program (CPP) in Bendigo to support post-COVID-19 recovery and leave a positive community legacy.

Community projects will receive the funding over the next three years.

*The reporter is a volunteer member of the Melbourne Mining Club steering committee.