Novo Resources bulk sample returns 10.4 grams gold/tonne
Examples of in situ gold nuggets frozen in matrix material from the Comet Well and Purdy's Reward area. Source: Novo Resources Corp.
Novo Resources Corp. [NVO-TSXV, NSRPF-OTCQX] was an active trader Thursday May 31 after the company released results for the first two bulk samples from Comet Well, part of Novo’s greater Karratha Gold Project located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Sample KX157, a 7.143-tonne bulk sample, previously reported to contain numerous gold nuggets, returned an impressive grade of 10.4 g/t gold. Sample KX158, a 6.853-tonne bulk sample encompassing conglomerate and footwall dolerite, returned 1.5 g/t gold.
Investors reacted by sending Novo shares down 35.54% or $2.15 to $3.90 in late morning trading Thursday, on volume of 1.06 million. The 52-week range is 78 cents and $8.83.
Novo is focused on exploring and developing gold projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, where the company has established a land package covering approximately 12,000 km2.
Artemis Resources Ltd. [ARTTF-OTC, ARV-ASX, ATY-FRA] recently said the Pilbara is blessed with both iron ore and oil and gas resources. “We believe that the Pilbara has a third mega-resource: gold,” it said.
Novo recently acquired, through staking, a 100% interest in approximately 6,021 km2 of mineral rights in the Karratha region. Aggressive staking was undertaken following the discovery of a new occurrence of conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization at Comet Well and nearby Purdy’s Reward, approximately 45 km south of Karratha.
In April, 2017, Novo announced the acquisition of an interest in the approximately 48 km2 Comet Well property where local prospectors have recently been very active recovering gold from soil using metal detectors.
In May, 2017 Novo announced a farm-in joint venture agreement with Artemis Resources, covering an additional 1,536 km2 of prospective ground in the same region (Artemis has said it would seek a secondary listing in Canada on the most senior stock exchange available).
In recent years, metal detectorists have discovered gold nuggets, sometimes in concentrated patches, over an extensive area around the city of Karratha. In 2016, several particularly rich nugget patches were found in an area approximately 45 km south of Karratha near Comet Well and Artemis’s adjoining Purdy’s Reward property.
Back in February, 2018, the company said scout diamond core drilling has commenced along a 2.5 kilometre-long, by 500-metre wide, northeast-trending corridor extending from areas drilled last year at Purdy’s Reward to an intensely prospected area called the Powerline showing on the Comet Well tenements. The drill program is designed to evaluate the position, thickness and dip of gold-bearing conglomerates that subcrop along the length of this corridor.
Additional bulk samples, KX151-Kx162, have been collected from nearby trenches and are currently being processed through the SGS Minerals laboratory in Perth, Australia. Data from these samples will provide a more thorough understanding of gold grades within the basal few metres of the Lower Cannonball conglomerate, a unit has yielded numerous metal detector strikes.
“We are very encouraged by initial bulk sample results from Comet Well,” said Novo Chairman and President Dr. Quinton Hennigh. “Samples KX157 and KX158 are the first two +5 tonne samples collected and analyzed by our new protocols, a seminal step forward for the company and the project.”