May 22 2019
Novo Resources Corp. takes pleasure in providing an update of activities at its Egina Gold Project, Western Australia.
Although exploration programs have been proposed across the breadth of +12,000 km2 of Pilbara tenement holdings of Novo, Novo’s priorities with respect to project development in this field season are concentrated around the historic gold mining centers of Station Peak and Egina. After a short delay in returning to the site due to the effects of Tropical Cyclone Veronica, works are currently on track to fulfill initial schedules. Existing activities can be described as follows:
- The Station Peak camp, headquarters for the Egina Gold Project, has been completely upgraded to a 16-bed camp, large enough to house required staff for upcoming bulk sampling and processing work. Provided the project is remote, about 60 km from the Coastal Highway, Novo found that this upgrade is essential to safe and sustainable operations at Egina.
- Edwards Construction of Port Hedland has been granted a contract for all earthmoving at the project. Equipment has been delivered to site and is currently being used for the reconfiguration of the processing area for receipt and handling of huge samples and tailings.
- The IGR3000 gravity gold plant of the company undergoes upgrades to simplify the processing of bulk samples and confirm maximum gold recovery. A conveyor with a digital weightometer has been installed to measure the mass sample accurately. It is expected that this work will be completed by next month.
- Currently, a series of five water bores have been drilled close to the Station Peak camp to confirm enough water is available for the processing of bulk sample.
- Ground penetrating radar (“GPR”) and magnetic surveys were recently completed over the initial target area, which is about 1 km2 and where the previous operator excavated several trenches. At present, GPR data have been processed, but primary indications suggest that the targeted gold-bearing gravel horizon is laterally consistent and shallow as predicted. More refined data processing may determine shallow depressions, which are potential trap sites for alluvial gold. Detailed magnetic data will help find areas with the accumulation of heavy magnetitic sands, which are another promising proxy for the concentrations of alluvial gold. Precise modeling of GPR and magnetic data is considered important in laying out the network of sample sites across the target area. Excavation of mass sample will start once this model has been finished and sample sites are selected over the coming weeks.
- Metal detection and systematic mapping have been performed across the greater Egina mining lease to gain a better understanding of the extent of gold-bearing lag gravels and potential gold sources in underlying bedrock. Many gold nuggets have been detected and recorded. Although a majority of them are rounded, which indicates that they are obtained from weathering of local conglomerates, some are hackly and attached to quartz, which indicates that they originate from veins in the underlying Mallina Formation basement rocks. This is interesting as it suggests that there may be local hardrock targets at Egina.
I am pleased with progress at our Egina Gold Project. We are confident we will be working at Egina for a long time and therefore decided to invest in a new, large camp suitable for sustainable operations at this remote location. Earth moving equipment has been delivered, and preparations for bulk sample processing including upgrades to Novo’s IGR3000 gravity gold plant are well underway. Data from our recently completed GPR and magnetic surveys appear highly useful for laying out our bulk sample sites. We expect to be excavating bulk samples commencing in late-June with processing commencing by early July once plant upgrades are complete. In the meantime, our scout mapping and metal detecting campaign has added to our understanding of the extent of gold-bearing lag gravels across the mining lease as well as suggested we may have local bedrock gold sources. This is going to be a very exciting year for the Company as we continue to understand the prospectivity of this unique gold system.
Dr Quinton Hennigh, President, Director, and Chairman, Novo