The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Infill holes confirm continuity; prep-lab to speed turnaround North of 60 Mining News – September 3, 2021
Nova Minerals has only received assay results from about 10 of the nearly 50 holes it has completed this year at the Korbel deposit and RPM target on its Estelle gold property in Alaska.
Nova Minerals is testing expansion targets that could expand the Korbel deposit by about 1,500 meters.
Nova Minerals Ltd. Sept. 1 reported that infill drilling of the Korbel deposit on its Estelle gold project in Alaska continues to confirm the continuity and expand upon the resource outlined there.
According to an April calculation, the Korbel Main deposit hosts 4.7 million ounces of gold in 518 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.3 grams per metric ton gold.
This year's drilling is focused on upgrading and expanding this resource, as well as establishing a maiden resource at RPM, one of several intriguing gold targets across the 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) Estelle property.
"Nova's multi-pronged drilling strategy is designed to advance the Korbel Main deposit towards being 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 on-line will bring value to the company," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.
The latest batch of results from this multi-pronged program is from two infill holes to upgrade resources at Korbel, which is expected to significantly de-risk the project.
Drilled in the southeastern half of the 1,800-meter-long Korbel Main deposit, hole KBDH-075 cut 216 meters averaging 0.5 g/t gold from a depth of 36 meters. This longer intercept included several higher-grade subsections:
• Three meters averaging 2.9 g/t gold from 57 meters.
• Three meters averaging 2 g/t gold from 130 meters.
• 67 meters averaging 0.7 g/t gold from 158 meters.
Hole KBDH-077, drilled 200 meters northwest of KBDH-075 and near the center of the currently defined Korbel Main deposit, cut 219 meters averaging 0.4 g/t gold from a depth of six meters. Higher grade subsections include:
• 18 meters averaging 0.6 g/t gold from 45 meters.
• Six meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold from 88 meters.
• Three meters averaging 2.3 g/t from 137 meters.
Nova says these results continue to show that the Korbel Main deposit has significant scale with higher-grade "blow out" zones within the continuous mineralization.
So far, the company has only received assay results from 10 of the more than 40 holes drilled so far at Korbel. A recently completed on-site sample prep-lab facility, however, is expected to speed assay turnaround time while also reducing costs.
"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," Gerteisen said.
In addition to infill drilling, the 2021 program at Korbel includes step-out drilling to the northwest and southeast. Nova anticipates this expansion drill will extend the strike of Korbel to more than 3,000 meters.
"We aim to grow the global resource inventory and advance the Korbel project in parallel. This approach will maximize our ability to more rapidly monetize our world-class asset, bringing forward the production start time along with cash flow, and allow us to ramp up future operations in short order across the Korbel valley and the wider Estelle gold district," said Gerteisen.
In addition to the drilling at Korbel, Nova has drills turning at RPM, a potentially higher-grade prospect about 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the south.
One hole drilled by a previous operator in 2012 cut 177.4 meters averaging 0.79 g/t gold from a depth of 4.3 meters at RPM, including 50.2 meters of 1.75 g/t gold.
Nova's surface exploration near the discovery hole, an area now known as RPM-1, turned up rock samples with strong gold grades, including one sample averaging 291 g/t gold.
At RPM-2, a second area about 600 meters to the southeast, geologists have collected multiple rock samples with high-grade gold. The highest-grade samples from this area contained 103 g/t, 13.1 g/t, 9.3 g/t, 9 g/t, and 8.8 g/t gold.
"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," said the Nova Minerals CEO. "Based on this drilling, we plan to release a maiden resource estimate for RPM later this year."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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