The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Higher-grade gold deposit emerges on Estelle project in Alaska North of 60 Mining News – October 29, 2021
Nova Minerals cut strong gold mineralization in five of six holes completed during its first round of drilling at RPM, an emerging gold deposit toward the south end of Estelle.
Nova Minerals Ltd. Oct. 27 announced that a maiden inferred resource of 1.5 million ounces gold has been calculated for the RPM North deposit, bringing the total gold outlined so far at the company's Estelle property in Alaska to 6.2 million oz.
"RPM North is an exceptional new gold discovery within the Estelle Gold district which highlights the massive upside potential of this project. This has really changed the future for Nova and our shareholders," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.
Based on six holes drilled by Nova this summer and one hole by a previous operator, RPM North hosts 23.1 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant inferred resource averaging two grams per metric ton (1.5 million oz) gold.
This adds to the 518 million metric tons of JORC inferred resource averaging 0.3 g/t (4.7 million oz) gold previously outlined at the Korbel deposit about 16 miles (25 kilometers) north of RPM.
"Nova's management, with much credit to our team on the ground, has taken Estelle gold project from discovery to a multi-deposit Tier 1 scale 6.2-million-oz gold district in a short timeframe and on relatively limited funding," Gerteisen added.
The Australia-based exploration company says the RPM North resource starts at surface and remains open in all directions and to depth, with the much larger footprint RPM South Zone about 600 meters to the southeast yet to be drill tested.
The company, which currently has five rigs carrying out resource upgrade and expansion drilling in preparation for feasibility-level studies for the Korbel deposit, plans to mobilize multiple drills to expand upon RPM and carry out inaugural drilling at RPM South early in 2022.
In addition, Nova says there are more than a dozen other occurrences across the 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) Estelle property that have yet to be tested by the company, including the Train-Shoeshine gold prospects and at the Stoney gold-silver-copper vein system discovered this summer.
"I have no doubt we will be drilling and growing our total global resource inventory for many years to come," Gerteisen said.
The first such expansion is expected with a new resource calculation for the Korbel Main deposit, slated for completion before the end of the year.
Assay results are pending for more than 10,000 meters of drilling completed this year at Korbel.
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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