Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA) has confirmed a large-scale gold discovery at RPM, within the company's flagship Estelle Gold Project in the prolific Tintina Gold Belt in Alaska.
Nova’s maiden drill program at RPM returned impressive results including:
RPM-002
- 128 metres at 1.0 g/t gold
- 42 metres at 1.5 g/t
- 12 metres at 2.0 g/t
- 6 metres at 2.7 g/t
- 3 metres at 3.0 g/t
- 3 metres at 4.1 g/t
(RPM-002 returned an overall average grade of 0.6 g/t gold over 274 metres from surface within the RPM North mineralized zone)
RPM-001
- 37 metres at 1.0 g/t gold
- 6 metres at 4.2 g/t
- 3 metres at 7.0 g/t
(RPM-001 returned an overall average grade of 0.3 g/t gold over 326 metres from surface within the RPM North mineralized zone)
Cross-section of RPM-002 and RPM-001
Nova has drilled 6 holes to date, with results from a further 4 holes to follow shortly.
“Serious depth to the Estelle Gold Project”
Nova CEO Christopher Gerteisen said: “This marks a major milestone for Nova Minerals. RPM is now confirmed as the next discovery within the Estelle Gold Project.
“Unlocking the district is no longer merely a plan- we HAVE unlocked it.
“This news adds serious depth to the Estelle Gold Project, which has an already world-class resource development project at Korbel, and now has a second at RPM, being advanced towards production.
“The impressive gold intersections we saw from historical hole SE12-008 have now been confirmed in terms of continuity and grade in these new drilling intersections in holes RPM-001 and 002.
“The gravity of this is huge for the company as well as the greater resource sector as positively demonstrates we have another gold deposit that will add significant ounces to the global resource inventory at the Estelle Gold Project.
“RPM is ideally situated on a ridge top, which points to a potentially ideal cost effective future mining scenario.”
Aggressive infill and extension drilling at Korbel Main
Nova has completed RPM North zone drilling with the goal of delineating a maiden resource by late 2021 and advancing the prospect through the development pipeline.
An additional diamond drill rig is expected on site in the coming weeks to ramp up Korbel infill drilling to expand and prove-up resource to indicated status with a resource update due in Q4.
Nova has also started aggressive infill and extension drilling at Korbel Main focused on the higher-grade SE zone with the goal of substantially increasing the 4.7 million ounces resource and upgrading the resource in size and confidence to expedite project feasibility studies.
Unlocking further targets
The company’s geological reconnaissance crew have completed field programs and have unlocked further targets within the Estelle Gold District.
Gerteisen said: “It is important to remember that Korbel and RPM are only 2 of 15 known prospects with the wider Estelle Gold Project claims.
“In addition to these, there are numerous unnamed colour anomalies across our 324km2 claim block.
“The reconnaissance exploration teams have now completed their 2021 field programs and the early indications are very encouraging.
“Assay results from a number of these new prospects will be announced in the coming weeks as we continue to unlock the district.”
Next steps
Nova is expecting a steady flow of news as results and findings become available.
This includes assay results pending for over 10,000 metres of drilling from both Korbel Main and RPM.
Gerteisen added: “The drill program at Korbel will continue at full pace into the foreseeable future, and we look forward to bringing shareholders results as they become available.
“In time, we expect to define multiple new shallow gold resources that will further support our goal of aggressively growing the resource inventory as we continue to move towards gold production at the Estelle Gold Project.
“Remember, we are on the fast-track towards production, that is our goal.
“We currently have 4.7Moz at the Korbel Main deposit, which represents just the beginning of our Estelle journey with the global resource base set to increase significantly in Q4 this year.”