Announcement • Aug 01
Novo Resources Corp. Provides Update on Planned Exploration Programs At Tibooburra Gold Project
Novo Resources Corp. had moved to the second stage and is progressing exploration at the Tibooburra Gold Project in NSW through a Farm-in/JV with Manhattan Gold Corporation Limited. Novo will commence a ~2,700 m RC program at Tibooburra, with drilling to occur at the Clone and Pioneer South prospects, post receipt of all regulatory and land holder approvals and anticipated to commence in late Third Quarter 2026. Step out drilling at the Clone prospect will target a northern extension to open, shallowly plunging, high-grade gold mineralisation confirmed during Novo’s 2025 drill campaign that reported results up to 12 m @ 5.90 g/t Au from 16 m, including 5 m @ 13.74 g/t Au from 23 m in TBR0001. First-pass drill testing at the Pioneer South prospect will target an undrilled ~600 m continuous trend of outcropping gold-quartz reefs characterised by historic workings and previously reported rock-chip assays up to 19.8 g/t Au. Pioneer South forms part of the broader Pioneer prospect defined by a > 2 km long, +30 ppb coherent Au-in-soil anomaly with historic workings along multiple trends. Previously reported results from limited drilling at Pioneer include 5 m @ 6.96 g/t Au from 199 m, including 1 m @ 33.9 g/t Au from 199 m in PN00022, collared along trend and approximately 300 m north of the planned program. Pioneer and Clone occur within a NW-trending, crustal-scale (> 30 km), fault-controlled, alteration corridor that represents one of several gold-prospective, mineralised corridors at Tibooburra. Regional streams and targeted soils, mapping and rock chip sampling to continue through Second Half 2026, designed to identify additional targets for potential follow up drilling. A ~2,700 m RC drilling program is scheduled to commence at Tibooburra in late Third Quarter 2026 post receipt of all regulatory and land holder approvals. Drilling is planned to test the Clone (~1,700 m) and Pioneer South prospects (~1,000 m). Ongoing regional stream sediment sampling, coupled with targeted mapping and surface sampling throughout Second Half 2026, are designed to generate new gold-anomalous zones, grow the target pipeline, and help prioritise those targets for future exploration drilling. The Pioneer prospect is defined by a > 2 km long +30 ppb, robust gold-in-soil anomaly, multiple lines of historic workings, shafts up to 76 m depth, and a historic processing hub centrally located within the prospect area. Pioneer sits within a regional NNW-trending fault-controlled alteration corridor hosted in a poly-deformed, tight to isoclinal folded and intensely sericite and carbonate altered siltstone and shale sequence. Historic workings at Pioneer targeted a series of parallel, N to NNW-striking gold-bearing quartz reefs. The quartz reefs are associated with narrow and continuous, steeply west dipping structures, that both cut and are ~10-15° oblique to the regional NNW-trending foliation and isoclinal folded stratigraphy. Gold-bearing quartz reefs at Pioneer are typically < 1 m in width, high-grade, and can be traced individually for tens to hundreds of metres. Footwall and/or hanging-wall mineralisation zones adjacent to the quartz reefs can reach thicknesses of 2 m to 5 m. Previous, broad spaced drill traverses in the central and northern parts of the Pioneer Prospect have returned the following, previously reported peak intercepts: 5 m @ 6.96 g/t Au from 199 m; including 1 m @ 33.90 g/t Au (PN0002), 2 m @ 14.74 g/t Au (TP003), 3.8 m @ 1.90 g/t Au from 69 m (AWPN02A). Structural data from mapping and orientated diamond core at Pioneer in conjunction with 3D modelling of historic mine workings and drill hole data indicate a moderate to steep N to NW plunge on high-grade shoots developed along the main mineralised structures. Planned RC drilling at Pioneer South prospect primarily targets two historically worked, parallel, steeply west-dipping quartz-reefs that comprise a main vein that can be traced continuously in outcrop for approximately 600 m; and a second, parallel, semi-continuous vein that occurs over the same trend, approximately 20 m – 25 m to the east. Rock-chip assays from the outcropping reefs or mullock from reef workings returned consistent +1 g/t Au along the entire 600 m trend and included previously reported results of 19.8 g/t Au, 8.12 g/t Au and 5.83 g/t Au. The Pioneer South veins have not previously been drilled. Drilling is planned for 8 RC holes in total for ~1,000 m on four sections designed to test below (and down-plunge) of the best developed and historically mined segments of the outcropping quartz-reefs at Pioneer South. Drill planning incorporates and prioritises modelled intersection of the quartz reefs at depth with mapped and projected anticline hinge position(s); which represents a favourable position for mineralisation in line with Victorian slate belt, orogenic lode-style quartz-reef mineralisation which is considered strongly analogous to the typical deposits encountered at Tibooburra. The Clone prospect is characterised by significant historic workings and an ~600 m long and up to 250 m wide coherent >30 ppb Au-in-soil anomaly, with previously reported rock chip results up to 89.6 g/t Au and 41.9 g/t Au from mullock dump samples, and 31.4 g/t Au and 10.4 g/t Au from limited quartz vein outcrop, which confirms the high-grade nature of the mineralisation at Clone. Outcrop mapping at Clone defines a west dipping reverse fault/thrust (Clone Thrust) associated with high-grade gold mineralisation. Most historical workings and significant sericite-carbonate alteration are proximal to, or constrained within the fault/shear zone. The turbidite stratigraphy is intensely folded (tight to isoclinal) with most fold axes plunging moderately NNW. The intersection of regional foliation and the main structures, provide a shallow north plunging intersection, similar to the high-grade shoot plunge defined by the recent drilling. Clone has been previously drilled across two campaigns (Novo in 2025 and Manhattan in 2023). Previous drilling was designed to test an approximately 500 m strike of prospective Clone trend across the main area of historical workings.
