Novo jags bonanza grade gold at untested NSW prospect

Novo Resources has jagged numerous high-grade gold rock chips at its Tibooburra project in northwest New South Wales, grading up to a punchy 39.9 grams per tonne (g/t) at its Pioneer North prospect.

The company says a string of double-digit gold assays have lit up its undrilled Pioneer prospects, highlighting numerous targets for maiden drilling.

The latest batch of reconnaissance sampling across the sprawling Tibooburra gold system in far northwest NSW turned up 15 samples above 1g/t gold from Pioneer South alone, including peaks of 19.8g/t, 8.12g/t and 5.83g/t from quartz reefs and old mullock along a 600m stretch of historic workings never touched by a drill bit.

Novo says a further 136 rock chips and 115 soils are in the lab queue, while mapping and down-hole televiewer work at Clone plus core re-logging at Pioneer and New Bendigo have confirmed the controls of its gold system.

The company says its gold lies in shallow to moderate northwest plunging high-grade shoots, mirroring the folding and faulting that drives big Victorian systems like Fosterville and Bendigo, although work is still in its early stages.

Novo Resources executive co-chairman Michael Spreadborough said: “The size of the Tibooburra Gold system is impressive and recent technical work combined with geochemical sampling has provided greater certainty on the controls of the high-grade shoots and identified new targets.”

The Tibooburra project now covers nearly 1000 square kilometres, encompassing the historic Albert goldfield, which has more than 200 old-timer workings identified along 22km of strike, with Pioneer in the north and New Bendigo to the south.

At the New Bendigo prospect, historical drilling has delivered exceptional results, including thick intersections of 30m at 4.03g/t gold from 11m and 8m at 40.5 g/t gold from 70m. 

At its Clone prospect in the project’s heart, a televiewer survey over 1500m of existing RC holes has confirmed shallow north-plunging gold shoots remain open.

Maiden drilling at Clone in May returned high-grade intercepts primed for extensional drilling, including a 12m hit running at 5.9g/t gold. 

Drill collars are now being lined up to test the virgin Pioneer South line which has all the makings of a high-grade discovery. 

Over at Novo’s John Bull project near Grafton, regulatory green lights are in hand for a 1750m RC program for later this year, with landholder talks the last hurdle before rods turn.

The NSW push slots into the company’s broader hunt for standalone gold camps, sitting alongside its Pilbara portfolio where Northern Star is earning half of its Becher project thanks to a $25 million spend.

With a fresh $7 million in the bank and gold still camped above $6000 an ounce, Novo has the rigs on standby to chase its untapped strike extent where it is hoping it can deliver the next big orogenic Bendigo style gold system.

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