Novo’s First Exploratory Trench at Egina Gold Project Supports Exploration Model

Novo Resources Corp. takes pleasure in announcing that its first exploration trench supports its exploration model meant for targeted gold-bearing terrace gravels located at its Egina gold project in Western Australia.

• In total, 162 gold nuggets with an overall weight of 324 g were retrieved via systematic metal detecting of Novo Resources’ first exploratory trench.
• This total comprises two massive nuggets that weigh 83.18 g and 78.14 g, respectively. The majority of the nuggets were retrieved on top of an underlying bedrock or from close to the base of the gravel profile.
• Nuggets were distributed along the whole length of the north-south oriented trench measuring 579 m long and 3.65 m wide; however, most nuggets were retrieved from a 50 m-long interval inside a topographic depression, or swale, in the underlying basement rock as detected by ground-penetrating radar (GPR) close to the trench’s northern end. This swale remains exposed to the east, where it seems to stretch out onto the greater terrace. Novo Resources views the Egina region as the boundary of a relatively more extensive gold-bearing gravel system, and this trench offers initial support for the exploration model.
• The majority of the gold nuggets have a flat, round shape that is typical of gold nuggets extracted from the relatively older bedrock conglomerate deposits discovered across the area. Novo Resources believes that most of the gold found at the Egina gold project is obtained from erosion and weathering of these conglomerate deposits.
• In order to better infer the occurrence of finer and undetectable nuggets and also the fine gold in these terrace gravels, Novo Resources is gathering a set of bulk samples from regions that are immediately next to this exploratory trench. All the samples have a 4x16 m footprint, and these will be processed through Novo Resources’ IGR 3000 gravity gold plant at adjacent Station Peak. Recently, the first bulk sample was excavated that produced 45 detectable gold nuggets weighing 63.86 g. Preliminary results from these samples will be available as soon they are processed.
• The average trench depth was just 0.9 m, while the trench depth in the purlieu of the swale reached up to 3 m. The gravel profile is covered by only 0.2 m of sandy soil. Trenching extended into the underlying bedrock by around 0.2 m. Within this trench, the overall thin nature of sand and sheetwash cover is exposed, which indicates that the targeted gravel horizon may exist at shallow depth over a wide region across the terrace—a potentially conducive outcome that suggests minimal overburden stripping.
• Trenching was performed along the eastern edge of a formerly trenched region. The previous owners of the Egina mining lease had prospected this area. Regrettably, data on the size, number, and distribution of gold nuggets from these older trenches was not obtained.
• For more exploration regions on the Egina mining lease, Kariyarra Aboriginal Corporation has planned a heritage survey/clearance process starting from August 26^th, 2019. Novo Resources has planned to subsequently extend its present program of exploration trenching within the cleared sections.

GPR coupled with exploration trenching and metal detecting is proving to be the most effective means of exploration of the gold-bearing terrace gravels at Egina. We are very encouraged by results from our first trench. Although nuggets occur along the length of the trench, we can now clearly see a connection between the slight topographic depression, or swale, and high concentration of nuggets.

Dr Quinton Hennigh, President and Chairman, Novo Resources Corp.

Dr Hennigh continued, “finding such large concentration of large gold nuggets is a testament to the uniqueness of the Egina gold system. We are hopeful the system is opening up as we step away from the hills at Egina and onto the greater terrace to the east, and we are looking forward to getting further heritage clearance to explore more of this unusual deposit.”

Staff at Novo Resources staff identified and gathered nuggets from the exploration trench. Later, these nuggets were determined, weighed, and logged without any restriction, and securely stored. So far, Novo staff has verified all the pertinent data.

Source: https://www.novoresources.com/