Mick Shorter first came to Australia’s gold mining capital of Kalgoorlie-Boulder as a teenager looking for a job.

The week before his 18th birthday, he started labouring as a driller’s offsider.

Decades later, puffing on a cigarette while working the controls of a drill rig, he is at the coalface of a modern-day gold rush.

“I like it because you’re out in the bush, you’re playing in the mud,” he said.

“It’s like you’re a little kid. I never grew up.”

Just 25 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit gold mine, Mr Shorter and two young offsiders are drilling for riches that have made WA’s Goldfields region famous around the globe since the 1890s gold rush.

With the metal trading near record highs, surpassing $6,000 an ounce in Aussie dollar terms for the first time in October, it is no surprise that gold exploration has surged 45 per cent in the past year.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), $431 million was spent on gold exploration in the September quarter, up from $297 million a year ago.

As more capital flows to junior exploration companies in the hunt for gold, Mr Shorter said the drilling industry was facing labour shortages, especially for experienced drillers.

“It’s exciting times for Kalgoorlie … it’s been pretty busy, and it’s getting busier,” he said.

“Because there’s so much work on at the moment, there’s a shortage of workers, but there’s also a shortage of drillers because there haven’t been so many come through the ranks over the years.”

Finding the golden goose

While Mr Shorter has spent the past 30 years drilling for gold and other minerals, he has never actually seen the yellow metal.

“Thirty years I’ve been doing this, and I’ve never seen any gold,” he said.

“It’s obviously there, but I’ve never seen it in any samples.

“You can tell what sort of rocks are good, that might host them [gold deposits], so when you find quartz and stuff, yeah, you’re pretty happy.”

Play video.

Has Video Duration: 2 minutes 21 seconds.

Watch 2m 21s

In most cases, gold is not visible to the human eye and requires scientific analysis in an assay laboratory.

Edward Mead, a veteran geologist and director of ASX-listed gold explorer Riversgold, said the results were crucial for planning the next phases of exploration, or more simply “where we put the next drill hole”.

“Six months ago, getting assays through the local laboratory would take 10 to 14 days. Now that’s out to five to six weeks,” he said.

“So if assay labs are an indication of how the industry is going, then absolutely, there has been an uptick in activity.”

Cash flows to gold

It has been a remarkable year for gold. The London-based World Gold Council tracks the metal’s trade and says there have been more than 50 all-time price highs set.

The rapid rise helped drive investment in Australia’s mineral exploration sector overall in the September quarter, with $3.49 billion representing the strongest quarter since tracking began in 2013.

BDO Australia’s global leader for natural resources, Sherif Andrawes, said gold attracted the lion’s share, with 21 ASX-listed gold exploration companies raising a combined $552 million.

“The gold price is strong and has been for a while now, and I think most people believe it will remain strong for some time,” he said.

“Mines of the future take a long time to develop, we’re talking 10 to 15 years, so when money isn’t coming into the exploration sector, that just puts those mines further away.

“The more money spent on exploration, the more likely they are to find something, so it’s a healthy sign for the industry.”

Record gold prices have resulted in increased profitability for existing producers and old mines have suddenly become viable again.

In the case of the Devon mine, near Laverton in WA’s northern Goldfields, trucking ore 283km from the mine to Coolgardie’s Greenfields Mill for processing has become an economic proposition.

Matsa Resources executive chairman Paul Poli said this year’s price surge was “beyond anyone’s wildest dreams”.

“The increase in the gold price has brought the Goldfields alive,” he said.

“When we first contemplated putting Devon into production, we were working on a gold price of $3,500 an ounce.

“But where we are today has meant an abundant amount of employment opportunities, a huge amount of new gold production, and Devon is just a classic example of that.”