Novo sharpens WA antimony-gold targets for first pass drilling push

Novo Resources has reported highly encouraging new exploration results from its Wyloo gold-silver-antimony project in WA's southern Pilbara, confirming multiple high-priority drill targets and paving the way for the company's maiden reverse circulation (RC) drilling program.

Recent work has significantly upgraded the company’s Wyloo SE prospect, where a polymetallic vein system carrying silver, antimony, arsenic, zinc and lead has been confirmed. 

A soil sampling grid of 162 soil samples, spaced at 40 metres x 20 metres, has outlined a strong multi-element anomaly over about 150m of strike, running parallel to the rock layers and crosscutting the main veins. 

Peak soil responses have hit 57.2 parts per million (ppm) silver, 142ppm antimony, 1440ppm arsenic, 2180ppm zinc and 1530ppm lead. 

The anomaly remains open and trends under cover to the southwest and northeast, hinting at bigger potential beneath shallow soils, water-borne sheetwash and alluvium.

Novo Resources executive co-chairman and acting chief executive officer Mike Spreadborough said: “The results from Wyloo SE continue to impress, with recent soil sampling defining a strong, open-ended multielement anomaly over a known polymetallic vein system. These results enhance our confidence in the scale and prospectivity of the target, and we are very excited about the conducting the maiden drill program into this compelling target.”

Follow-up work at the nearby Wyloo SW prospect, where an earlier high-grade antimony stream sediment anomaly was identified, has defined a 2.5km-long x 800m-wide target zone. The finding stemmed from an infill stream sediment program involving 54 samples aimed at tracking down the source of the original anomaly. 

Peak stream sediment sample results reached 19.9ppm antimony and 57ppm arsenic, with associated copper, lead and zinc. 

Limited outcrop in the area displayed evidence of strong shearing, quartz veining and carbonate alteration. Selective rock-chip sampling involving 53 samples from limited outcrop delivered elevated but lower-grade values up to 570 ppm arsenic, 526 ppm copper, 431 ppm zinc and 26 ppm antimony. 

Despite the seemingly low tenor of the results, Novo believes that elemental associations point to an active mineralisation system, although more work is needed to pinpoint the source of the anomalism under the thin surface cover.

A heritage survey across the Wyloo SE area is slated for early next month, which should then clear the way for the company’s maiden 1500-metre RC drill program before the end of June.

Drilling is planned shortly to test the main east-northeast trending, high-grade polymetallic vein array at Wyloo SE, which is up to 18m wide at surface and exhibits intense sulphidic zones. 

It will also test the adjacent Tasha Fault zone and the west-northwest trending stratabound anomalies close to sulphide-bearing intrusives, including a quartz-eye porphyry mapped nearby.

Novo’s Wyloo southeast and southwest prospects sit in the core of the Wyloo anticline and on the southeast flank of the Wyloo Dome, a geologically well-recognised basement high in the regional scale Ashburton Basin.

The Ashburton Basin is a major Proterozoic sedimentary basin in WA’s northwest, spanning over 400km by 100km along the northern Capricorn Orogen, which extends from WA’s northwest coastal highway, near Cane River, southeast to the Paraburdoo area.

The Paulsons gold deposit, with a historic production of over 900,000 ounces of gold, is situated 180km west of Paraburdoo and lies about 40km west-northwest of the Novo ground, within the same dome structure. 

Paulsens is currently owned and operated by Black Cat Syndicate and currently has an impressive resource of 4.3 million tonnes at 4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 548,000 ounces of gold, with further exploration potential.

Novo first spotted two regional antimony anomalies in the tenement area in a 2023 stream sampling program. Follow-up reconnaissance at Wyloo SE delivered eye-catching rock chip results, with seven samples returning up to 387g/t silver, 0.38 per cent antimony, 5.0 per cent lead, 1.6 per cent zinc, 2.4 per cent copper and 0.52g/t gold.

Additional mapping and sampling of quartz-sulphide veins at Wyloo SE last year further strengthened the prospect's credentials. More rock chip sample results refined the target, producing peak results of 482g/t silver, 1.29 per cent antimony, 9.7 per cent lead, 16 per cent zinc, 2.4 per cent copper and 0.93g/t gold. 

Geological mapping at Wyloo SE has revealed a highly prospective structural setting, with an important vein array paralleling the significant Tasha Fault and dipping moderately southeast on the margins of a rhyolite dome.

The surrounding geology also includes a number of sub-volcanic intrusions, notably a quartz-eye porphyry displaying disseminated malachite formed from the near-surface breakdown of copper sulphides.

Another tick for Wyloo is the presence of jasperoidal replacement zones - silica-rich, sulphide-bearing rocks formed when hot, silica-charged fluids push through fractures and replace carbonate rocks such as limestone with quartz. These hydrothermal overprints are often associated with ore deposits and can point the way to mineralisation nearby.

The new results have clearly brought the target into sharper focus and fuelled excitement ahead of Novo’s first real drill test of the Wyloo SE polymetallic system.

With multiple open anomalies and drilling just months away, the Wyloo ground could deliver a fresh discovery story for Novo in a proven Pilbara neighbourhood. 

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