The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - August 21, 2024
Massive stibnite (antimony mineral) collected from the Stibium prospect at Estelle.
An antimony-enriched vein discovered at Stibium.
The 2024 drilling at RPM is focused on upgrading inferred resources to the higher confidence measured and indicated categories.
Nova Minerals Ltd. Aug. 21 announced that it is continuing to pursue both the precious metal and critical mineral potential at its Estelle gold-antimony project about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage, Alaska.
According to a calculation completed earlier this year in compliance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) S-K 1300 reporting guidelines, Estelle hosts 244 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.3 grams per metric ton (2.72 million ounces) gold, plus 231 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.3 g/t (2.45 million oz) gold.
This resource is divided into two project areas at Estelle: the large bulk-tonnage Korbel area at the north end of the 198-square-mile (514 square kilometers) property and the higher-grade RPM area about 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the south.
While unlocking the multimillion-ounce gold potential at Estelle remains Nova's primary focus, the criticality of the antimony found across the district-scale property was elevated with the recent announcement that China will be placing state-controlled restrictions on the export of antimony starting on Sept. 15.
No antimony is currently mined in the United States, and China controls nearly half of the global supply of this critical metalloid used in fireproofing compounds, batteries, ammunition, electronics, specialty glass, and other commercial and military products.
A property-wide exploration program carried out last year identified high-grade antimony at several locations across Estelle. The most promising of these antimony targets is Stibium, which the company is investigating further this year.
"At the Stibium prospect our field crews are continuing to find near surface, massive stibnite veining and gold-antimony zones, which present opportunities to assess the stand-alone potential of a quick start antimony operation, particularly with the China export restrictions," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.
To unlock Estelle's gold potential, Nova is focusing this year's drilling on expanding and upgrading the resources at RPM. Two adjacent deposits at RPM host 4.4 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 2.5 g/t (330,000 oz) gold, plus 46 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.5 g/t (800,000 oz) gold.
The 2024 drilling at RPM is focused on upgrading inferred resources to the higher confidence measured and indicated categories.
These resources do not include approximately 6,600 meters of drilling completed late last year at Estelle.
The results from the late 2023 holes and the drilling completed this year will be used to upgrade and expand resources for a feasibility study that will detail plans for an initial smaller-scale operation at RPM that can generate cash flow to help fund the development of a larger operation at Estelle.
"We have only scratched the surface at the high-grade RPM deposit with targeted drilling this year aimed to prove up resources in support of our efforts of an initial lower capex, smaller scale operation at RPM, to achieve production and cashflow as soon as possible," said Gerteisen.
Toward this goal, the company has completed 11 holes focused on upgrading near-surface, high-grade inferred resources at RPM to higher-confidence measured and indicated categories.
"We believe this should prove successful based on the immense mineralized quartz veins observed on surface above our drill traces," said Nova Minerals Head of Exploration Hans Hoffman.
In addition to drilling, crews are carrying out a surface sampling program focused on delineating geochemical anomalies across the wider RPM area. This program includes grid-based soil sampling, rock chip sampling, and mapping.
As resource upgrade drilling continues at RPM, crews are carrying out an extensive surface sampling program at Stibium, which lies about six miles (10 kilometers) southeast of the four-million-oz Korbel deposits at Estelle.
Stibium was discovered during a property-wide reconnaissance exploration carried out during Nova's 2023 program that included the collection of 674 soil, 446 rock, and 21 stream sediment samples from across the Estelle property.
An antimony-enriched vein discovered at Stibium.
One sample collected from Stibium last year contained 2.1% stibnite (an antimony mineral), 12.7 g/t gold, and 1,600 g/t silver.
Nova says its field crews are carrying out extensive surface sampling to follow up on a two-meter-wide antimony-enriched surface vein discovered last year that was traced for over 30 meters along strike.
"We are hitting the new Stibium prospect with intensity; identifying massive stibnite veins in outcrop and expanding our geochemical coverage to highlight the extent of this impressive gold and antimony occurrence," said Hoffman.
This includes the collection of a 2,500-kilogram sample of the outcropping vein at Stibium for metallurgical testing at laboratories in Alaska and Australia.
Nova also reports that Gerteisen has been invited to a U.S. Department of Defense-related conference in September to discuss Estelle's antimony potential and illustrate how the company could potentially help the U.S. shore up its supply of this critical mineral.
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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