The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - November 20, 2024
Nova's geological team collected a 500-kilogram bulk sample from the Styx antinomy-gold occurrence at Estelle.
This sample collected from a newly discovered stibnite vein at the Styx target averages 54.1% antinomy.
A vein of antimony mineralization at Stibium.
Nova's 2024 drill program cut strong gold mineralization within an envisioned high-grade starter pit at the RPM North deposit.
Nova Minerals Ltd. Nov. 20 reported that its crews collected samples containing as much as 54.1% antimony lying on the surface at the Styx prospect on the company's 198-square-mile (514 square kilometers) gold-critical minerals property about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage, Alaska.
"Field crews visited the Styx prospect this year to follow-up on the initial antimony discovery made in 2023," said Nova Minerals Head of Exploration Hans Hoffman. "There was so much stibnite (an antimony mineral) just sitting on surface that we soon realized this would be too much to carry out, but it was also too impressive to leave behind."
This year, Nova crews collected 511 soil and 225 rock samples from Styx, as well as 500-kilogram (1,100 pounds) bulk sample for metallurgical testing.
Some of the rock samples collected from Styx contained very high-grade antimony and gold grades as high as 9.8 grams per metric ton. Highlights include:
This sample collected from a newly discovered stibnite vein at the Styx target averages 54.1% antinomy.
• 54.1% antimony in sample E406941.
• 39.1% antimony in sample E406938.
• 28% antimony and 2.8 g/t gold in sample E406795.
• 20.7% antimony in sample E406940.
• 3% antimony and 5.6 g/t gold in sample E406796.
• 1% antimony and 5.5 g/t gold in sample E406937.
• 0.3% antimony and 9.8 g/t gold in sample E406936.
Most of the samples were collected from the main outcropping vein occurrence identified by Nova geologists last year. The highest-grade sample, however, came from a newly discovered outcropping quartz vein located approximately 130 meters southwest and 100 meters lower than the main occurrence.
"We believe that plenty more remains as we look deeper into the Styx occurrence," said Hoffman.
Styx is not the only, and thus far not the primary, antimony occurrence found at Estelle. Most of the company's antimony focus has been Stibium, which hosts a two-meter-thick antimony-enriched vein with significant precious metals. One sample collected from Stibium last year returned 2.1% antimony, 12.7 g/t gold, and 1,600 g/t silver.
A vein of antimony mineralization at Stibium.
This year, the company carried out additional exploration in and around the Stibium vein, which included the collection of a 2,500-kilogram (5,510 pounds) bulk sample.
The bulk samples from Styx and Stibium have been sent to laboratories in Alaska and Australia for metallurgical testing.
The results from this testing are of high interest to the U.S. Department of Defense, which has expressed interest in backing a small mining operation at Estelle that would produce significant quantities of antimony due to the very high-grade nature of the mineralization.
Securing reliable supplies of antimony is a top concern for many within DOD due to China and Russia's control of the global supply of this metalloid needed for ammunition and a wide range of military hardware, highlighting antimony's place on the list of minerals critical the U.S.
About six months ago, Nova's subsidiary Alaska Range Resources joined the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, which helps small businesses fund and develop innovative ideas with potential defense applications.
Recognizing the potential of its antimony discovery early on, Nova says it is well advanced within the DOD grant application process to potentially rapidly develop the antimony and other critical minerals prospects identified across the Estelle property.
As exciting as Estelle's antimony potential is, this critical mineral is not Nova's main focus on this property that also hosts 244 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.3 g/t (2.72 million oz) 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 – the large bulk-tonnage Korbel area at the north end of the 198-square-mile (514 square kilometers) Estelle property and the higher-grade RPM area about 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the south.
A feasibility study currently underway will detail the economic and engineering parameters of establishing an initial mine at RPM that can be scaled up to a larger operation at Estelle.
Nova's 2024 drill program cut strong gold mineralization within an envisioned high-grade starter pit at the RPM North deposit.
Wide sections of strong gold mineralization encountered during a 21-hole drill program carried out this year at RPM is being incorporated into an updated resource that will serve as the basis of prefeasibility for what is expected to be a low-capital, high-return starter mine at RPM that can fund the expansion to a larger operation at Estelle.
"The 2024 drill results have confirmed a broad zone of high-grade mineralization starting at surface at RPM North," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen. "This should prove positive for our upcoming studies focused on executing our current strategy to fast-track development of RPM as a scale-able low capex/high margin starter operation that we believe will generate the cash flow to facilitate future mine expansion plans and further unlock the larger Estelle project, which remains one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world, with significant upside remaining with gold, antimony, copper, silver, and other critical elements."
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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