The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Including 3 million oz elevated to indicated resource category North of 60 Mining News - December 23, 2021
Drilling has now outlined 8.1 million oz of gold at the Korbel Main deposit on Nova Minerals' Estelle gold property in Alaska.
Nova Minerals Ltd. Dec. 22 announced that drilling has now outlined 9.6 million ounces of gold at its Estelle property in Alaska, a 55% increase over the 6.2 million oz reported by the Australia-based exploration company in October. The previous calculation brought in the first ever resource for RPM, the second deposit outlined so far at Estelle. The new calculation upgrades and expands upon the larger Korbel Main deposit.
According to the latest resource update the Korbel Main, which is situated at the north end of the Estelle property, hosts 286 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.3 grams per metric ton (3 million oz) gold; plus 583 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.3 g/t (5.1 million oz) gold.
This marks the first ever resource that has elevated a portion of the Korbel Main resource to the higher confidence indicated category. Even with the elevation of 3 million oz to indicated, the inferred resource at Korbel expanded by 400,000 oz.
RPM, a new deposit about 16 miles (25 kilometers) south of Korbel, hosts 23 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2 g/t (1.5 million oz) gold. The maiden resource for this deposit was reported by Nova in October.
"Nova's management, with much credit to our team on the ground, has taken the Estelle gold project from discovery to a multi-deposit gold district in a short timeframe and on relatively limited funding and the exciting point is that we're only getting started," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.
With assays pending from more than 8,000 meters of drilling completed this year at Korbel Main and five rigs continuing to turn on the Estelle property, this growth is expected to continue into 2022.
While expanding the resources at Korbel Main and RPM are expected to be primary targets for drilling going into the new year, the 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) Estelle property hosts several other targets Nova is eager to explore.
"With this, and no shortage of further targets, including the recently discovered mineralization at our Train-Shoeshine and Stoney prospects, there is no doubt that our global resource inventory will continue to grow for many years to come as we continue to unlock Estelle's potential as a world-class trend," said Gerteisen.
The Nova Minerals CEO said pre-feasibility study level work is being carried out in parallel with the resource development drilling at Estelle.
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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