Aboriginal title

• Initial two diamond drill holes from ongoing six-hole 2,300 m program completed as planned at Belltopper Gold Project in Victoria.
• VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (ASX: NVO) (TSX: NVO & NVO.WT.A) (OTCQX: NSRPF) is pleased to provide an update on current exploration programs and proposed 2024 drilling programs across its Western Australian and Victorian gold portfolio.
• Balla Balla is an emerging exploration project covering an area over 1,200 sq km, located in the northwestern Pilbara (Figure 4).
• Tenement E47/4923 has been recently granted, and overall discussions with Native Title partners are progressing, further enabling access for exploration programs in 2024.

• The implication is that people will be forced to give up their land.
• The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, called it a “another example of the dirty tricks campaign” being waged to sow doubt over the Voice referendum.
• Like the fear-mongering over the Mabo decision, the current alarm over the potential loss of private lands with a Voice to Parliament is unwarranted because this claim is manifestly incorrect.

Would the proposed Voice have powers related to land?

• It seeks to insert one new section into the Constitution, which reads:
  In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:

  there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;
  the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
  the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.

• In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
• The Voice is a committee that may provide advice to parliament and government on issues relating to First Nations people.
• The new provision also gives one sole power to the parliament – it would have the capacity to set up the Voice.
• Importantly, the power to establish the Voice would not be given to the government – it would belong to parliament.

How native title works

• Mabo confirmed native title can only be claimed over land where there is no interest in conflict with the exercise of this right.
• Native title will always give way to grants of exclusive land use.
• Following this decision, the law now states that every grant of freehold land (“private” land) extinguishes native title.
• Consequently, even if the constitutional change creating the Voice did (somehow) recognise native title, it is not possible to “convert” freehold land to native title.

• At Belltopper in Victoria, 2,000 m of diamond drilling will test high priority targets developed from 3D modelling of integrated datasets and is scheduled for late H2, 2023.
• VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (“Novo” or the “Company”) (TSX: NVO, NVO.WT & NVO.WT.A) (OTCQX: NSRPF) is pleased to provide an update on exploration programs scheduled for the remainder of 2023 across its extensive tenement portfolio in the Pilbara, Western Australia and Belltopper in Victoria.
• Heritage approvals have been finalised for Novo’s ~ 2,000 m of RC drilling scheduled to proceed in H2 2023.
• Novo exploration in 2023 has focussed on integrating all regional to target-scale data sets to develop a 3D geological and mineralisation model (Figure 6 and Figure 7).

• The Northern Territory government’s plan to turn 100,000 hectares over to large-scale crops such as cotton and its support for onshore gas extraction is threatening the world’s largest intact tropical savanna.
• As wildlife ecologists and conservation scientists, we are deeply concerned about plans announced last month that would intensify land clearing.

Land clearing leaves wildlife homeless

• Land clearing leads to habitat loss, erosion and pollution of waterways.
• Agriculture, including livestock grazing (pastoralism), is by far the greatest driver of land clearing in northern Australia.
• The land subject to clearing approvals in the NT increased by 300% between 2018 and 2021.

Weak laws afford limited protection

• Our national environmental protection law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, relies on self-referral of development activities for assessment.
• This means the potential impacts on threatened species and other natural values supposedly protected by national environmental laws, are never assessed by experts.
• The Pastoral Land Board approves land clearing across pastoral leases (which cover more than 45% of the territory’s land area).
• On one occasion the proponent referred an application to the NT Environment Protection Agency.

Fuelling fires and biodiversity loss

• The push to extract gas from the Beetaloo Basin represents another major threat to the region.
• The export of fracked gas from Beetaloo will be facilitated by the Middle Arm Sustainable Development precinct.

A better future for Australia’s tropical savannas

To protect Australia’s tropical savannas from uncontrolled land clearing and gas extraction, we need:

Avoid repeating past mistakes

• Against a backdrop of climate change, biodiversity decline and extinction crises, any further development of the north must be subject to rigorous risk-assessment and appropriate environmental protections.
• We simply can’t afford to risk repeating mistakes already inflicted on much of southern Australia.
• He is a member of the Australian Government's Threatened Species Scientific Committee, and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Scientific Advisory Network.