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50 www.resourceworld.com F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 8 MINING NOVO RESOURCES CORP. [NVO-TSXV; NSRPF-OTCQX] recently completed 69 holes (3,294 metres) of scout diamond drilling on the Purdy's Reward conglom- erate gold property in Western Australia. The 1,256 km 2 property is a farm-in and joint venture with ASX-Listed Artemis Resources and is part of Novo's greater 7,000 km 2 Karratha gold project. In July 2017, Novo discovered gold nuggets in conglomerate exposed in a single trench excavated at Purdy's Reward. Duplicate bulk samples from this trench assayed 87.76 g/t gold and 46.14 g/t gold or a weighted average of 67.08 g/t gold. Gold mineralization at Karratha is hosted in a sequence of conglomerate beds that vary in thickness from a few metres to about 20 metres. These conglomerates outcrop at surface and then dip gently towards the southeast at shallow angles less than 10 degrees. They form the base of a much thicker package of sedimentary and volcanic rocks known as the Fortescue group 2.78 to 2.63 billion years old. Novo began trenching, bulk sampling and scout diamond drilling to assess the depth, thickness and grade of the gold- bearing conglomerates. The challenge with conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization is that it is extremely nuggety and assay results from standard drill holes cannot be relied upon. The company decided upon a three-pronged approach; 1) scout dia- mond drilling for geological data, 2) large diameter drilling for bulk sampling, 3) trenching for geological information and bulk sampling. Unfortunately, the attempt at large diameter drilling was unsuccessful at generating samples of consistent size and integrity. Novo has since shifted its efforts to bulk sampling trenches for meaningful gold assays. "We were fully aware from day one that the Karratha gold project is a coarse gold system," said Dr. Quinton Hennigh, President and Chairman of Novo. "While the ability to recover consistent, qual- ity sample material using large diameter drilling has not yet been accomplished, trenching appears to yield acceptable bulk samples for test work. Bulk sampling at surface will be the most critical means of determining the grade, processing charac- teristics and viability of this deposit." The company's 69-hole scout drilling campaign was more successful. It tested a 1,550-metre-long by 500-metre wide northeast-trending corridor where the tar- get conglomerate is near surface. Drilling within the target conglomerate sequence exhibited good continuity within the 1.5-by-0.5 km corridor. However, there were three areas where basement gabbro intrusive rocks intruded into the conglom- erate sequence and formed "islands" in the southwest part of the target area. The conglomerate sequence forms a continuous sheet-like rock unit that dips about 4-to-7 degrees to the southeast. A northeast-trending normal fault down-drops the stratigraphic pile south- east of the drilling corridor. A line of three step-out holes was drilled 300 metres southeast of this corridor to test the con- tinuity of the conglomerate unit at depth. All three intersected the target conglom- erate. This is significant since it confirms the continuation of the host rocks. Novo reports that some conglomerate beds intercepted in these deeper holes display increasing quartz clast content and local concentrations of detrital pyrite. This is a potential indication the system is evolving further from the paleo-shoreline and other favourable depositional environments may be present nearby. Based on data collected, geologists believe Purdy's Reward represents a near-shore fluvial depositional environ- ment periodically reworked by marine processes. Other examples of this type of deposit include Nome, Alaska, Orange River, Namibia, and the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Recent sampling from trenches on the property extracted numerous in-situ gold mineralization samples. Virtually all gold occurs as coarse nuggets within the con- glomerate matrix and most of the nuggets are rounded and flattened which is con- sistent with primary alluvial transport and deposition. Interestingly, gold is often associated with chlorite-rich shale clasts as opposed to quartz clasts which suggests the gold could be derived from earlier gold-bearing sedimentary deposits. Novo is now undertaking a compre- hensive size analysis of gold distribution in a 3-tonne sample collected from Trench 1. Results will help determine the most appropriate sample size and method of analysis for reliable average grade determination. Early results from the bulk sampling: Sample CS-001, a 304-kg bulk sample from Trench 1 returned a calculated head grade of 15.7 g/t gold. Sample KX083, a 371-kg bulk sample from Trench 2 returned a cal- culated head grade of 17.7 g/t gold. Sample KX078, a 356-kg bulk sample from con- glomerate 40 cm above the basal contact, was determined to have a calculated head grade of 1.3 g/t gold. Novo Resources has 146 million shares outstanding with about $72 million in cash and no debt. At press time market capital- ization was $526.6 million. n In-situ gold nuggets have been found up to 4 cm long at the Purdy's Reward property. Source: Novo Resources Corp. Novo Resources' Purdy's Reward nuggety but has size potential by Thomas Schuster