Leach gold recovery good sign for Estelle

Nova Minerals Ltd. Dec. 30 reported that initial metallurgical testing indicates strong gold recoveries from the Oxide Korbel deposit on its Estelle property in Alaska.

The company had 25 samples from its drilling at Korbel analyzed for gold recoveries. With a 12-hour bottle roll test, 76 percent of the gold was recovered from one-kilogram samples.

Nova said these results indicate the potential of establishing a low-cost, heap leach mining operation at Estelle, where the company has already outlined 181.3 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant inferred resource averaging 0.43 grams per metric ton (2.5 million ounces) gold.

"We are pleased with these initial recovery results as they validate the potential to realize high rates of gold recovery from a low strip, bulk mining, heap leach operation at the Korbel prospect," said Nova Minerals Managing Director Avi Kimelman. "Moreover, the 2020 drill program shows great potential to significantly increase our 2.5Moz inferred gold resource at Korbel both in size and confidence while maintaining our run rate of keeping our discovery cost per ounce extremely low on favorable mineralization for future project development."

The 2020 program at Estelle is expected to include resource upgrade drilling at Oxide Korbel blocks A and B, which hosts the 2.5-million-oz resource; drilling at Oxide Korbel blocks C and D, expansion targets near the gold resource; drilling at RPM, an early staged gold target about 16 miles (25 kilometers) south of Oxide Korbel; and discovery drilling at Shoeshine, another early staged exploration target about 4.5 miles (seven kilometers) northeast of RPM.

A winter road is being built to Estelle, which is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. Drills are slated to begin turning at Oxide Korbel blocks A and B as early as February.

–SHANE LASLEY