Novo preps drill rigs to chase high-grade WA gold

Novo Resources will kick off 4km of reverse-circulation (RC) drilling next week to follow up on high-grade gold hits reaching up to 6m at 6.12 grams per tonne at its Nunyerry North prospect, about 150km south-west of Port Hedland in Western Australia.

It comes after results from the company’s maiden 30-hole drill program turned heads, with other intercepts running as high as 11m at 2.52g/t from 22m including a 6m chunk at 4.19g/t, 13m at 1.89g/t from surface and 4m at 5.71g/t from 40m.

Notably, Novo says the first 30 holes only tested about 200m strike length of a soil anomaly that extends for about 2km at Nunyerry North. The upcoming RC program will test the remainder of that soil anomaly at a drill spacing of 80m to target the structural intersections, with the shears and cross-cutting faults thought to host the best grades.

Management says the program will also test the mineralisation style and tenor of a moderate surface anomaly in the mapped porphyry intrusion west of the Estrid Fault where several rock samples have gone up to 2.87g/t gold.  The mineralisation is thought to exist in narrow brecciated quartz veins within the porphyry as intrusion hosted gold that, interestingly, has not previously been identified in the district.

Novo says it will also target a series of structures mapped parallel to fault and shear zones, which are conceptual targets with the potential to be additional parallel lodes in basalt. Some of the targets have returned rock chip sample results of up to 6.4g/t gold – which is definitely worth following up.

The Nunyerry North project is being run as a joint venture (JV) between Novo and the well-renowned Creasy Group, with the former holding a 70 per cent interest. The WA Government seemed to like Novo’s planned drilling program, throwing in $180,000 as part of the exploration incentive scheme aimed at encouraging companies to explore within the State. 

After the RC holes at Nunyerry North, Novo will keep the rigs working with another 3500m of holes at the Railway Bore, East Well, and North Whundo prospects that are also in the Karratha district – this time hunting copper, platinum and palladium, as well as gold.

The holes are pencilled in to launch in this year’s second quarter in what will be the maiden drilling program in the area, about 40km south-east of the town of Karratha. Rock chip results from the site’s prospects gave more than just a sniff of paydirt, with samples suggesting the area is begging to see the drill bit.

Novo says its North Whundo target is leading the pack and is delineated by a 1.2km-long gold, copper and palladium anomaly revealed by soil sampling completed by the company last year. The area also threw up a rock chip going 4.1g/t gold, plus platinum and palladium and 3.9 per cent copper. 

Railway Bore, not to be outdone, gave up rock chips maxing out at 9.6g/t gold, 11.9 per cent copper and 26g/t silver. Management says the target is defined by a 60m-wide and 450m-long soil anomaly, with a peak pXRF result of 1750ppm copper.

Novo is sitting pretty with no debt and an investment portfolio of $39.3 million and $17.4 million in cash. The market will no doubt be looking forward to the upcoming news flow out of its 7.5km of drilling as the price of gold shows no signs of slowing – touching $3555 spot price per ounce in Australia today.

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