Squad commander Detective Superintendent Mick Willing said detectives were determined to find Nolan's remains.
"We now know we are looking at the right spot, which is near the 2012 excavation, but changes to the terrain have meant this area was unexposed at that time," he said.
"The loss of a loved one is never easy to deal with, but the grief can be even harder to overcome when you can't lay them to rest.
"For more than a decade, investigators have been following every line of inquiry in hope of ending the family's search for answers.
"We hope we will soon be able allow them to properly - and respectfully - say goodbye," Willing said.
Naden, a former shearer and abattoir worker, was sentenced to life in prison in 2013 after facing court on two murder charges.
The then 39-year-old had pleaded guilty to the murder of Nolan, whom he strangled in her car in Dubbo before dismembering her body and burying it beside the Macquarie River.
Naden was also sentenced for the murder of Kristy Scholes, 24, who was staying with him at his grandparents' house in Dubbo when he strangled her in June 2005. Naden then went on the run before being captured in 2012 after one of NSW's biggest manhunts.
He committed a spate of break-ins in bushland and shot a police officer during his seven years as a fugitive.
