Negotiations on permits to drill are still in progress with the Department of Conservation and Historic Places Trust, and the four-week programme could begin later this month, depending on the outcome, Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson said yesterday.
"If we get snowed out there is the potential to move to other Glass Earth projects in the Central Otago area,'' he said.
The programme would involve a vehicle-mounted drilling rig, operated by a team of three, plus a geologist and assistant, to drill three or four holes over a minimum total of 600m, costing $150,000-$200,000.
"We're not expecting the drilling to be as difficult as in the North Island volcanic region,'' Mr Henderson said of the underlying geology in the Serpentine area.
Glass Earth raised $10 million in dual listing in New Zealand and Toronto in October 2006 and a further $6.3 million was raised from Canada in August.
It has spent $4 million, including a $1 million contribution from the Otago Regional Council, on an Otago-wide airborne survey and recently tripled its Otago exploration budget to $3 million - in part for drilling possibly 15-20 test holes around Otago during the next year.
Serpentine would be the first drilling undertaken by Glass Earth in Otago after having recently highlighted the possibility it may have found two gold-bearing structures similar to Oceana Gold's Macraes mine in East Otago.
Mr Henderson said that ideally, once test drilling at Serpentine was completed, the team could move directly to either its Gold and Pine or Game Hen prospects to begin separate drilling programmes there.
Glass Earth is likely to fly an archaeologist up to Serpentine, on behalf of the Historic Places Trust, as any pre-20th century diggings needed to be assessed as for remnants of mining activities which may be worth preserving, Mr Henderson said.
