Novo Resources has unveiled a quality-grade gold resource at its Leven Star Reef deposit, part of the company’s Belltopper gold project in central Victoria, 120 kilometres northwest of Melbourne.
The inferred mineral resource comprises 760,000 tonnes grading a healthy 3.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 87,000 ounces of the shiny yellow metal.
The company says its fully-owned Belltopper project’s Leven Star Reef is one of eight high-grade gold-bearing reefs that make up its recently upgraded Exploration Target, ranging from between 2.1 million tonnes grading 6.7g/t gold for 460,000 ounces to 3.1 million tonnes at 8.9g/t for 880,000 ounces of gold.
Although Leven Star Reef is currently the only reef at site to produce a mineral resource, management believes the growth story could be just starting. The company plans to test the remaining seven reefs and a suite of underexplored historic gold structures that sit outside the current Exploration Target, potentially adding significant new ounces to the project.
Novo is planning to launch into a drilling program in the second half of the year to test the reefs both within and outside its Exploration target. It will also home in on several drill-ready targets within the prospective Belltopper anticline corridor as part of the drill campaign.
The new mineral resource has been defined from 44 shallow drillholes covering 7456m of drilling, with the company stating the resource remains open in multiple directions, providing scope for resource growth. A diamond-rig drilled 29 holes for 5959m, with reverse-circulation drilling comprising the balance of 15 holes for 1497m.
Management says the resource is based purely on an underground mining scenario and includes several assumptions. These include A$162 per tonne mining cost and A$119 per tonne processing cost, an 88 per cent metallurgical recovery rate and mining using open-stoping methods with 15-metre level-to-level separation.
It also assumed ore would be sent to a processing plant within reasonable haulage distance and an appropriate period for economic extraction of the deposit would be between five and ten years.
ASX-listed Kaiser Reef and Alkane Resources both operate processing plants within some 50km of Belltopper and may represent potential options to process the company’s ore.
Novo Resources executive co-chairman and acting chief executive officer Mike Spreadborough said: "The delivery of this maiden inferred mineral resource at Novo’s Belltopper gold project marks an important milestone for the Belltopper gold project and for Novo generally. An initial 87,000-ounce inferred mineral resource estimate provides a solid foundation for what we see as a highly prospective asset.”
Belltopper and its Leven Star Reef deposit sit within the Malmsbury goldfield in the eastern section of the Bendigo Zone of the Western Lachlan Orogen, often referred to as the Lachlan Fold Belt.
A prolific gold province known for many high-profile discoveries, the Lachlan Orogen hosts mining operations such as Agnico Eagle’s world-class Fosterville mine in the Western Lachlan Orogen in Victoria and Newmont’s Cadia Valley, responsible for producing 15 million ounces of gold.
The Leven Star Reef trends northeast and is considered an unusual orientation for the Bendigo Zone, with drilling highlighting mineralisation continuous for roughly 800m along strike.
Mineralisation is hosted by a linear quartz-veined stockwork breccia zone up to 10m wide. It is notable for its complex polymetallic assemblage, containing nickel-arsenic-bismuth-antimony-copper-zinc-tellurium sulphides, along with chromium-tungsten-fluorine and tin oxide minerals.
Although gold prices may have retreated lately, they are still more than 30 per cent higher over the past twelve months at US$4335 (A$6141) per ounce, remaining highly profitable territory for producers.
With a plethora of mining contractor deals with junior miners in the marketplace today on a profit-share arrangement, where the contractor foots the bill for drilling, mining and permitting, there may be scope for Novo to cash in on its quality-grade gold resource earlier than anticipated.
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By Craig Nolan
