A large deposit of "high-grade" gold has been discovered near Monto in what is being heralded as a potential gateway to investment and growth in the Wide Bay region.
Australian company Cannindah Resources Limited found the mineral as well as copper at Hole 18 of its Mount Cannindah Project site.
The company said it as confident there was more to be unearthed in the area, and the discovery could bring substantial wealth and jobs to the inland Burnett region.
Executive chairman Tom Pickett said his company had been extensively drilling at the site for some time and extended what mineralisation was initially thought to be under the surface.
Mr Pickett said about 5.5 million tonnes of minerals had been discovered at the site, but he believed there would be a considerable amount more.
"It's significant for the region in a sense, because there's not a lot of copper projects and gold projects of this sort of size, in our opinion," he said.
"It could be quite large, it could provide for significant job opportunities.
"So we'll keep assessing the size and keep adding to that with this drill program as we continue on."
Mr Pickett said a lack of copper on the international market and a high value of gold could prompt additional explorations and job prospects for the region.
Benefits for the Burnett
The Queensland Resources Council reported Wide Bay-Burnett resources industries supported 1,688 local jobs and contributed $963 million to the region's Gross Regional Product in the 2021-22 financial year.
Queensland Exploration Council chair Kim Wainwright said any gold discovery had significant economic impacts Cannindah's find could prove substantial for the Wide Bay-Burnett region.
"They've reported quite a large discovery, which is so positive for that region and it's really good news," Ms Wainwright said.
"We get pretty excited about discoveries in the state … we get good results all the time but when someone says we've got this large discovery, it's just so positive that it usually indicates that it's going to progress through the exploration phase into [the] mining phase."
She said copper was labelled internationally as a critical mineral, so a large discovery was good news.
"It's just going to mean that we are going to get more business into Queensland," she said.
Ms Wainwright said she was optimistic it would bring new investment and economic growth to not just the Wide Bay region, but for all of Queensland.
Untapped potential
Warwick Anderson, chief executive of mining technology company OreFox AI, said the Wide Bay-Burnett region had prospective grounds but was very under explored.
He said about one in 3,000 explorations eventuated into a mine, so he believed the Mount Cannindah discovery was "significant".
"There's a smattering of smaller deposits there or through the area," he said.
"It just takes the right group to grab something like that and see some unrealised potential, and something could get going a lot quicker."
