3 ounce to the tonne gold rock chips for Novo in Pilbara

Canadian listed gold producer Novo Resources Corporation has struck high grade gold up to a whopping 91 grams per tonne, or nearly 3 ounces to the tonne, through rock chip sampling at the historic Pilgrims Rest gold mine within the company’s Station peak prospect in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Numerous samples returned above 1 g/t gold with other notable high grade rock chips giving up 30 g/t gold, 13 g/t gold and 12 g/t gold across over 200m of strike length.

The company says the vast majority of samples were mineralised grading above 0.1 g/t gold confirming the potential for broad zones of gold mineralisation associated with the historic high-grade main reef in the area.

Historic mining ceased at Pilgrims Rest gold mine in 1927 following production of 11,347 ounces gold from 9,926 tonnes at a stellar 35.55 g/t gold. Importantly the old mine stopes only extend to just below 68m below surface leaving a lot of potential for gold in the ground according to Novo.

Pilgrims Rest is located only 41 kilometres to the southwest of De Grey Mining’s behemoth high-grade and near surface 6.8 million ounce Hemi gold deposit that sent that company’s share price through the stratosphere over the last 2 years.

Indee mine, another prolific mine in the Pilbara region, sits just 29km to the north of Pilgrims Rest.

The mining lease that encompasses Station Peak is part of a farm-in agreement with the Sumitomo Corporation of Tokyo, Japan.

Novo is now planning follow up work including integration of historic mine plans and underground development access ways. Stope and channel sampling along drives will then be incorporated into a 3D geological model.

Once a 3D geological model has been built, drill planning will commence and will target along strike and within the structurally complex zones down dip of surface alteration. Drilling will also aim to test down plunge of high-grade shoots from the main mine workings.

The company plans to test the footprint surrounding the old mine also by conducting detailed mapping, soil geochemical sampling and further rock chip sampling to the west of the Pilgrims West mine.

Pilgrims West has experienced very minimal exploration work since historic mining concluded in 1927 with only one company, Bullion Minerals Limited, sinking seven shallow RC drillholes into the workings in 2003. Four of the drillholes have been interpreted to have not reached target depth with the other three holes providing some promising grades including 2m at 8.47 g/t gold from 47m downhole, 2m grading 4.28 g/t gold from 26m and 2m going 6.42 g/t gold from 71m downhole.

Rock chip samples grading up to 91 g/t gold is a positive initial sign and begs the question, where did they come from? With historic drilling also showing solid grades it just might be worth throwing a few resources at this one.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au