The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
The 2024 drill program at Estelle has focused on upgrading inferred resources at the RPM gold deposit to the higher confidence measured and indicated categories.
Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen with stibnite samples collected from the Estelle gold-antimony project in Alaska.
Toward its goal of unlocking the value of Estelle, Nova Minerals Ltd. is pulling together the final bits of information needed to complete a feasibility study for developing a mine at this gold and critical minerals project in Alaska’s West Susitna Mineral District.
“Estelle is a major mineralized trend, hosting gold, antimony, silver, copper, and other critical elements and we are working to begin production as early as possible and operate for decades supplying the minerals the world needs,” said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.
Lying about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska, Estelle hosts 244 million metric tons of S-K 1300-compliant 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.
A feasibility study slated for completion by the end of the year is expected to detail plans for a starter mine at the smaller and higher-grade RPM deposit and then scaling up to a larger operation that takes full advantage of the multi-million-ounce gold resources outlined so far at Estelle.
In September, Nova hired Australia-based Whittle Consulting to investigate the best path forward for establishing an initial mine at the RPM deposit that can be scaled up to a larger operation at the gold-antimony project.
“Nova consists of a small team working on the very large Estelle project and I am pleased with what we have been able to accomplish to date,” said Gerteisen. “Now is the time take the next step by engaging high caliber consultants like Whittle Consulting to accelerate the FS (feasibility study) which will be initially focused on RPM as a scale-able low capex/high margin project with future expansion plans achieved through cashflow as soon as possible.”
According to a calculation completed early in 2024, 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.
Most of the 2024 resource upgrade and expansion holes drilled at RPM last year cut wide sections of strong gold mineralization. Highlights include:
• 43 meters averaging 4.4 g/t gold from a depth of two meters in hole RPMRC-24005.
• 45 meters averaging 3.4 g/t gold from surface in hole RPMRC-24008.
• 39 meters averaging 5.4 g/t gold from surface in hole RPMRC-24016.
• 29 meters averaging 7.1 g/t gold from surface in hole RPMRC-24017.
• 66 meters averaging 2.1 g/t gold from surface in hole RPMRC-24019.
• 34 meters averaging 3.9 g/t gold from surface in hole RPMRC-24021.
The results from this drilling are being incorporated into upgraded and expanded resources for the feasibility study.
“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.”
An initial review by Whittle has identified opportunities to substantially improve the Estelle project’s economics by increasing cash flows in the early years of production and optimizing life-of-mine metal production.
“We like Nova Mineral’s open-minded approach and agility,” said Whittle Consulting CEO Gerald Whittle. “The Estelle project presents near surface high-grade ore which lends itself to a highly profitable small-scale selective-mining approach to get into production and cash flow early, to contribute to a large expansion later to exploit the full potential of the ore body.”
In addition to more than 5 million oz of gold, Nova Minerals’ geological team, led by Hans Hoffman, has identified multiple prospects enriched with high-grade antimony, copper, and silver.
The company is particularly interested in Stibium, where one sample was collected from a two-meter-thick outcropping vein of massive stibnite with grades as high as 72% antimony, along with strong gold and silver byproduct mineralization. This stibnite vein has also attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense which is intrigued by the potential of developing a small but high-grade antimony mine at Stibium.
Securing reliable supply of this mineral critical to fireproofing compounds, night vision gear, ammunition, and various other military and civilian applications has been a DOD priority for several years.
This is because there is no antimony currently being mined in the U.S., and China controls nearly half of the global supply of this metalloid critical to America’s military readiness.
Antimony’s criticality and strategic value rose sharply when China placed state-controlled restrictions on the export of antimony beginning in September.
Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen with stibnite samples collected from the Estelle gold-antimony project in Alaska.
With the price and criticality of antimony climbing, Nova is investigating the possibility of accelerating the development of pilot-scale operations at Stibium with DOD support.
In preparation for this, the company collected a 2,500-kilogram bulk sample from Stibium and a 500-kilogram sample from Styx, which hosts a one-meter-thick stibnite vein with grades as high as 54.1% antimony, for metallurgical testing at laboratories in Alaska and Australia.
“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,” Gerteisen said.
Nova has applied for a DOD grant to fund the accelerated development of an antimony mine 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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