Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA) believes its latest infill drilling results at the 4.7-million-ounce Korbel deposit within the flagship Estelle Gold Project in Alaska pave the way for an updated indicated mineral resource estimate later this year, after demonstrating continuity of mineralisation and scale with high-grade “blow-out” zones.
Aggressive infill and extension (step out) drilling is ongoing at Korbel Main, focusing on the high-grade SE feeder zone with the goal of upgrading the resource in size and confidence to expedite project feasibility studies.
Assay results remain pending for more than 10,000 metres of drilling from Korbel Main and RPM.
Advancing towards 2023 bankable status
NVA chief executive officer Christopher Gerteisen said the company’s multi-pronged drilling strategy was designed to advance the Korbel Main deposit towards being a bankable project by 2023.
“A focus on proving up the resource to indicated status, which can then translate into reserve ounces for our planned starter operation, while at the same time pushing forward the resource development program at the RPM prospect and unlocking the wider Estelle Gold District with additional prospects rapidly coming online will bring value to the company.
“We aim to grow the global resource inventory and advance the Korbel project in parallel.
“This approach will maximise our ability to more rapidly monetize our world-class asset, bringing forward the production start time along with cashflow, and allow us to ramp up future operations in short order across the Korbel Valley and the wider Estelle Gold District.”
RPM could potentially add ounces to Estelle
In addition to the exciting drilling at Korbel, Gerteisen said another major milestone was in the crosshairs.
“Drilling at the RPM prospect is now in full swing with six holes completed.
“This is very positive as we open up a second resource deposit at RPM, which has the potential to add significant ounces to the Estelle Gold Project’s global resource inventory.
“Assays for first holes, RPM-001 and RPM-002 are in the final stages of analysis and will be announced soon, with results of the remaining holes to follow – based on this drilling, we plan to release a maiden resource estimate for RPM later this year.”
Drilling results
Drill hole KBDH-075 returned an overall average grade of 0.5 g/t gold over 216 metres from 36 metres within the Korbel mineralised intrusive containing multiple high-grade zones.
Latest results from this hole include 67 metres at 0.7 g/t gold, 30 metres at 0.8 g/t, 6 metres at 1 g/t, 9 metres at 1.1 g/t, 3 metres at 2 g/t and 3 metres at 2.9 g/t.
Additionally, drill hole KBDH-077 returned an overall average grade of 0.4 g/t over 219 metres from 6 metres within the Korbel mineralised intrusive containing multiple high-grade zones.
These results include 85 metres at 0.5 g/t gold, 18 metres at 0.6 g/t, 12 metres at 1 g/t, 9 metres at 1.2 g/t, 6 metres at 1.4 g/t and 3 metres at 2.3 g/t.
The mineralisation remains open along strike to the northwest and southeast with a predicted strike length of over 3 kilometres of continuous gold mineralisation.
Next steps
Gerteisen added: “An additional diamond drill rig has also now been ordered as we plan to ramp things up considerably.
“We expect this rig to be mobilized and start turning in the coming months.
“While assay lab turnaround times and supply chain disruptions continue to frustrate, the newly commissioned on-site prep-lab is already helping to alleviate some of the challenges in relation to assay turnaround.
“Drilling related news and results will continue to flow throughout 2021 and beyond, along with a Q4 global resource update.”
Nova said an update on Snow Lake Resources was due shortly and was expected to add significant value to Nova Minerals in the near term.
In April 2019, Nova Minerals spun out the Thompson Brothers Lithium Project through Snow Lake Resources Ltd and now owns 73.8% of the company.
Snow Lake Resources announced earlier this year that it planned to conduct a registered initial public offering on the Nasdaq alongside peers Albemarle Corporation (NASDAQ: ALB), Livent Corporation (NASDAQ: LTHM), Lithium Americas Corp (TSX:LAC, NYSE:LAC). (NASDAQ: LAC), Piedmont Lithium Inc (ASX:PLL, NASDAQ:PLL, XETRA:). (NASDAQ: PLL) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).