Areas to the north of Canberra, from Gurrundah to Bungendore, fall under a broad 350-square-kilometre area of assessment by Aruma Resources in an exploration licence application lodged with the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Founded in 2010, Aruma Resources is an ASX-listed company headed by chemical geologist Peter Schwann, who has applied his "sediment host" gold theory to exploration leases in Western Australia.

Aruma holds 100 per cent ownership of three active gold exploration projects in the Eastern Goldfields, just east of the WA major mining centre of Kalgoorlie.

The company recently sought to obtain more working capital to explore its existing leases in the Pilbara area of WA and for "the evaluation of the Capital Gold Project located in NSW".

The company's Capital Gold Project sits within a small portion of the Lachlan Fold, a huge boot-shaped tectonic structure of folded and faulted rocks of similar age which stretches from Bourke, in the mid-west of NSW, to Ballarat, in Victoria.

Copper, gold and a host of other minerals have been discovered in the fold. Copper Hill mine, near Molong in the central west of NSW, was one of the first copper mines in Australia starting in 1845.

There are remnants of old gold diggings littered throughout the areas to the north of Canberra. Some of the region's road names, such as Old Goldmines Road near Sutton, and Macs Reef Road further north - named after William McEnally's gold reef near Newington Rd, Wamboin - provide clear evidence. And in Canberra, of course, there's our own Gold Creek.

After the NSW government surveyor concluded in 1852 that "gold in profitable quantities will hereafter be found in some part of the district of which Bywong Hill is the centre", prospectors flocked to the region.

The Gundaroo goldfields were proclaimed in 1873. In 1895, Bywong was a thriving gold mining area, with about 300 people actively working the diggings.

READ MORE:

By the turn of the century, the diggings were all but exhausted using old-fashioned mining methodologies.

However, specialist heavy equipment and techniques now make low-yield gold mining potentially more profitable.

Attempts to extract viable quantities of gold from previously mined leases and digs to Canberra's north have been largely unsuccessful.

Helicopter-based airborne electromagnetic surveys, which measure variations in the electrical conductivity of the ground to detect geological changes, have been conducted of various areas around Gundaroo, Bywong and Wamboin in recent years, although these were separate to the more recent Aruma Resources investigation.

Mr Schwann described his chances of making a gold discovery in the area around "one in 10,000", although clearly it's a punt he's prepared to wager given the current price of the precious metal sits around $77 per gram.

"The first step in the exploration of the project will be a desktop data-gathering process from historical records of previous exploration and mining," he said.

"The second phase will be to identify areas of possible interest and meet the stakeholders and seek permission for access if required."

This may be followed by airborne sensing using drones.

Mining exploration leases are highly contentious, in that they provide for the owner of the lease to gain access to private property, without permission required, for the purposes of drilling or soil sampling.

However, Mr Schwann has sought to reassure local landholders that there would be a complete consultation before any "on-ground" activity.

"Rule number one in mining exploration is do not get offside with the farmer," he said.