Key Highlights

•  Novo confirmed it will form a 70:30 unincorporated joint venture with Manhattan Gold at the Tibooburra gold project.

•  The company satisfied the minimum expenditure in October 2026 and has elected to form the joint venture.

•  An RC drilling programme at the Clone prospect has cleared its remaining approvals, and the update includes no new assay results.

Novo Resources Corp (ASX:NVO) has moved its Tibooburra gold project in far north-west New South Wales into a new phase, confirming it will form a 70:30 unincorporated joint venture with Manhattan Gold and that a reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme at the Clone prospect has cleared its remaining approvals. The update was released on 27 October 2026.

The update includes no new assay results, so it concerns access, ownership and timing rather than fresh discoveries.

Earn-in met and joint venture elected

Under the original arrangement, Novo needed to spend A$1.5 million on exploration to earn a 70% interest in six exploration licences covering the Albert Goldfields. According to the release, the company satisfied that minimum expenditure in October 2026 and has elected to form the joint venture. Novo will hold 70% and Awati Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Manhattan Gold Corporation, will retain 30%.

Novo will manage the joint venture. The company said it will also free-carry Awati's share of exploration costs until a bankable feasibility study has been completed. That structure gives Novo operational control and the larger economic stake, but it also means Novo carries the full cost of exploration for an undefined period while the project remains at an early stage.

Clone drilling cleared to proceed

Novo said it has now received all regulatory and landholder approvals for the RC programme, announced on 30 July. NSW Parks and Wildlife approved an extension of drilling at Clone in October, and a heritage clearance survey with the Tibooburra Local Aboriginal Land Council was completed in July.

The planned programme comprises about 2,700 metres across 18 holes. Its main aim is to test the down-plunge extension of a shallow-dipping, north-plunging high-grade shoot that the company says is defined over about 300 metres of strike to roughly 90 metres vertical depth. The plan includes a step-out traverse about 100 metres north, plus selected down-dip and infill holes on existing lines. The release gives the start timing as November 2026, citing both early and mid-November in different sections.

What earlier drilling showed

Clone hosts historic workings and a gold-in-soil anomaly about 600 metres long and up to 250 metres wide. Mineralisation is associated with a west-dipping thrust structure and, according to Novo, remains open down plunge to the north.

Previously reported intercepts from Novo's 2025 drilling and Manhattan's 2023 programme include 12 metres at 5.90 g/t gold from 16 metres in TBR0001, including 5 metres at 13.74 g/t gold from 23 metres, and 17 metres at 2.40 g/t gold from 59 metres in TBR0014. Manhattan's hole CL0007 returned 6 metres at 8.39 g/t gold from 82 metres, while CL0010 returned 9 metres at 6.03 g/t gold from 16 metres. These are downhole intervals and true widths were not stated in the material reviewed. Novo described the results as showing "grade and width continuity", though the release cautions they are not necessarily representative of the wider project.

There is no mineral resource or exploration target at Tibooburra; the work remains early-stage exploration.

Why it matters and what comes next

Novo, which is also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has been building a portfolio of eastern Australian gold projects alongside its Pilbara ground. Securing majority control of Tibooburra gives the company a clearer path to steer exploration across a district where historic workings extend 20 to 30 kilometres along strike and only a small number have seen modern testing.

Beyond Clone, regional stream sediment sampling, mapping and gridded soil sampling began in September, with results pending. Novo said that work is intended to rank new targets across the 30-kilometre Albert Goldfield for possible drilling in 2027. Exploration timing remains subject to the usual weather, contractor and approval risks noted in the company's forward-looking statements.