Pilbara gold explorers have come under intense pressure today following a disappointing update from cheerleader Canada’s Novo Resources.
Novo and ASX-listed partner Artemis Resources kicked off the Pilbara gold nugget rush on July 13 when they announced a gold nugget find at their Purdy’s Reward site near Karratha in Western Australia.
Key players in the Pilbara gold story started Monday with significant losses after Novo shares dived 18 per cent to $C5.45 ($A5.63) at the weekend, after a lacklustre report from Purdy’s Reward.
Novo said it was not happy with the integrity of the sample results produced from large diameter drilling for the critical purpose of gold grade estimation.
Novo’s share price has lost 31 per cent in the last two weeks, wiping $C340 million ($351 million) off its market value.
Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) slid as much as 28 per cent in early morning trade, but recovered to 31c by 12.30pm AEDT — down 18 per cent.
Artemis this morning announced the joint venture partners have been granted approval to mine a 20,000 tonne bulk sample from Purdy’s Reward.
“The ability to now take bulk samples of this size is potentially very important for the Novo/Artemis exploration efforts determining the actual recovered grades of this nugget gold bearing conglomerate at Purdy’s Reward,” executive chairman David Lenigas told investors.
De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) lost 25 per cent of its market value in morning trade after its share price retreated to an intra-day low of 16.5c. The shares were trading at 17.5c at 12.30pm AEDT.
De Grey attracted the interest of investors earlier this year with its discovery of gold nuggets at Loudens Patch in the Pilbara and a subsequent discovery that it believes could be bigger again.
Canadian mid-tier gold miner Kirkland Lake Gold recently backed De Grey to the tune of $5 million after it found 91 gold nuggets at its Pilbara project.
Kairos Minerals’ (ASX:KAI) shares tumbled as much as 18.5 per cent to a low of 5.3c.
The company attracted substantial investor interest after it reported in September that it had uncovered Witwatersrand-style conglomerate-hosted gold mineralisation similar to the discoveries made by Novo and Artemis at its Pilbara sites.
DGO Gold (ASX:DGO) tumbled 19.1 per cent to an intra-day low of $1.21.
The company’s share price rocketed after it reported back in August that its Mallina ground in the Pilbara has “sediments analogous in age with the Witwatersrand gold province in South Africa”.
Other Pilbara gold stocks were holding up relatively well, however.
Mark Creasy-backed Coziron Resources (ASX:CZR) was holding up relatively well. Its shares were down 4 per cent to 2.5c at 12.30pm AEDT.
Earlier in November, Coziron bought up further Pilbara land in the hunt for conglomerate gold from Mr Creasy, the company’s biggest shareholder and a renowned prospector.
Dual-listed Chalice Gold Mines (ASX:CHN, TSX:CHN) slipped 2.8 per cent this morning to 17.5c. Chalice showed up on investors’ radars in early October after announcing it was planning to start drilling at its West Pilbara gold project.