The Aussie-listed junior has contracted an excavator and a dozer to cut new benches on the Nevera prospect at the project, which encompasses a widespread realm of gold and base metal anomalies in soils and rock chips over a 3.5km by 2.5km area.

The prospect is named after the Nevera Volcanic Complex, where previous drilling found a zone of gold mineralisation 300m east of an artisanal mining zone.

The best of the five historical holes drilled by BHP hit 151m at 2.8 grams per tonne gold, including 24m at 6.55gpt gold.

Most of the benching work is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

Further geological mapping and sampling will be carried out over the next few months with first sampling results expected in July.

Gold Anomaly aims to define weathered zone supergene gold targets in the haematite cap area of the project which includes part of the artisanal mining zone.

"The company will investigate the potential to fast track a surface mining operation as well as generating new information on the lithological and structural controls of the deeper large-scale gold potential that Gold Anomaly will continue to prioritise, providing a valuable guide in sitting drillholes for the next stage of deep drilling later in the year," Gold Anomaly said.

The company's exploration director, Peter Macnab, is well versed in PNG's geology and is noted to be the "discoverer/co-discoverer" for the Lihir, Misima, Simberi, Wafi and Frieda River mines and projects.

"This is an impressive prospect. I expect that the next two months will produce exciting new information," he said.

Anomaly Resources, which held the Crater Mountain project before it was taken over by Gold Aura last year, noted back in 2008 that artisanal miners in the area were producing up to 4kg of gold a month.