Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA, OTCQB:NVAAF) has received more high-grade results — up to 74.5 g/t gold, 2,720 g/t silver, 10.6% copper and 1.3% antimony — from the Stoney, West Wing and T5 prospects at its flagship Estelle Gold Project in the prolific Tintina Gold Belt in Alaska.
“The greater Stoney area, which now includes West Wing and T5, has a strong polymetallic signature with elevated levels of silver, copper and antimony – in addition to gold. Our field crews are eager to get back here in 2024 to follow up on these anomalies and to collect chip samples across the main Stoney Vein,” said Nova head of Exploration Hans Hoffman.
During the 2023 field season, Hoffman undertook an extensive surface exploration mapping and sampling program across the entire Estelle Gold Project comprising more than 45 traverses covering 100 line kilometres, 674 soil samples, 446 rock samples and 21 stream sediment samples:
Nova has now received all results from the soil and rock chip samples taken from across the project area in 2023, and the re-examining of multi-element data from historical samples to determine the presence of antimony and other critical minerals. As such, the company is now drafting its planned exploration program for the 2024 field season.
In the 2023 and previous year sampling exploration programs the focus was purely on identifying gold pathfinders, with the discovery of the other important minerals this year being coincidental.
However, Nova says that from 2024 onwards the surface sampling exploration programs will now also target a range of critical elements, in addition to the gold.
Soil and rock chip results
Confirmation of the presence of high-grade gold and coincident, silver, copper and antimony in the greater Stoney area comes from field observations, assay results from 2023 surface samples and the re-examination of multi-element data from historical samples.
The additional results reported today are from the Stoney, West Wing and T5 prospects in the central portion of the claim tenements within the Estelle Gold Project.
Anomalous gold, silver, copper and antimony was shown in the 27 rocks and 59 soils collected. The best surface sampling results include:
At T5:
- 75.8 g/t gold equivalent - 74.5 g/t gold,1.2% copper, 0.3% antimony.
At Stoney:
- 49.2 g/t gold equivalent - 48.4 g/t gold, 3.6% copper;
- 37.3 g/t gold equivalent - 5.1 g/t gold, 2,390 g/t silver, 8.5% copper, 1.3% antimony;
- 36.4 g/t gold equivalent - 0.6 g/t gold, 2,720 g/t silver, 10.6% copper, 0.1% antimony; and
- 25.4 g/t gold equivalent - 5.1 g/t gold, 1,500 g/t silver, 5% copper, 0.9% antimony.
At West Wing:
- 25.9 g/t gold equivalent - 25.8 g/t gold and 0.6% copper.
Results included six rocks of greater than 10 g/t gold equivalent with a high of 75.8 g/t gold equivalent; two rocks greater than 1,000 g/t silver; four rocks of greater than 3% copper with a high of 8.5% copper; and three soils and five rocks grading more than 0.1% antimony, including two rocks measuring 1.3% and 0.9% antimony
There were also 10 soils of more than 1.0 g/t gold equivalent, including a high of 4.2 g/t gold equivalent; plus three soil samples returning greater than 0.1% antimony, including a high of 0.48% antimony.
Gold sample results at Stoney, West Wing, and T5 prospects.
Antimony sample results at Stoney, West Wing, and T5 prospects.
“Massive exploration upside potential”
Nova CEO Christopher Gerteisen said: “Stoney continues to be a high-grade gold and multi-element target for us with these latest results now further confirming its high-priority prospect status. It’s yet another discovery, adding to the 20+ known prospects that highlight the massive exploration upside potential across the Estelle Project area.
“To note, the number of high-grade soil samples returning >1g/t gold extending across the prospect is usually a good indicator for the potential of a large mineralized system, so it’s certainly exciting.
“We have truly only scratched the surface across the Estelle Project and expect further discoveries as we systematically explore the 513-square-kilometre claim block.
“With the promising multi-element results that are being returned at numerous prospects now, we are beginning to fully appreciate the potential for copper, silver, antimony and other critical elements to provide significant by-product credits in future production.
“To be clear, we are a gold company and our primary focus has been to search and find gold, and now this multitude of elements, some of which are very lucrative in their own right, are finding us.
“We intend to take advantage of the fact that these additional elements are coincident with the gold and pursue this potential. As such, we will continue to follow up and analyse for these elements as we move forward with our exploration programs.
“The potential upside is immense as we advance these prospects towards resource definition on our path to production.”
Nova geologist exploring in the T5 prospect area