Assay results from infill and extensional drilling at Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA, OTCQB:NVAAF)’s RPM South deposit at the Estelle Gold Project in Alaska continue to show large intervals of near surface gold. Importantly, the company expects the drill results to prove up the RPM South inferred resource to the higher confidence “indicated” category within the RPM starter pit.
Six of the seven holes drilled had average grades above the current mineral resource grade for RPM South of 0.4 grams per tonne of gold, and a number of the intercepts were also greater than the 0.73 grams per tonne mill feed grade used in the recent scoping study.
Intercepts included 30 metres grading 1.2 grams per tonne of gold from 30 metres; and 7 metres at 2.1 grams per tonne of gold from 48m, including 1 metre at 7.7 grams per tonne of gold from 48 metres.
Drill hole details.
Nova CEO Christopher Gerteisen said, “The recently announced Estelle Gold Project scoping study identified RPM as a high grade, fast payback, production source in the early mine life, with significant exploration upside.
“These new resource infill and extensional drilling results from RPM South successfully demonstrate the continuity of mineralisation within the proposed RPM starter pit area and we look forward to announcing more results from the drilling conducted in the high-grade RPM North zone and the 2nd intrusive in the RPM Valley area as they are received.”
Nova intends to update the interactive 3D Vrify decks on the company’s website and they will be available to view shortly. You can watch a 3D Vrify video with commentary from Gerteisen on the 2023 RPM South drill results here:
Drilling meets all planned objectives
The 2023 drill program across the wider Estelle Gold Project area has now finished and was completed under budget. While the actual drilling completed during the program was for less metres than originally proposed, Nova is confident that the 2023 program met the four main objectives.
Those objectives were:
- RPM South: Prove up the resource to the higher confidence indicated category within the proposed RPM starter pit area and target mineralisation which lies outside of the scoping study open pit shell.
- RPM North: Prove up more of the resource to the higher confidence indicated category and potentially extend the resource up and down dip from the high-grade core.
- RPM Valley: Follow up and confirm the mineralised intrusive intersected in the lower part of holes RPM-037 and RPM-025 and prove it up to the higher confidence indicated category.
- Train: Drill test the prospective Train area with a maiden drill program to follow up the high grade rock chip samples and geological observations made within the area.
RPM South Section A-A’_230azi showing continuity of mineralisation.
Updated global mineral resource estimate
Assay results are pending from RPM North, RPM Valley and the Train area that will assist in determining the next steps. The company says that while turnaround times in the assay laboratories have improved this year, they have still not yet returned back to pre-covid levels with some challenges still existing.
Once all assay results are in, Nova plans to complete an upgraded global mineral resource estimate. This new resource will be used as the basis for the company’s strategic review and optimisation studies which are being undertaken as part of the ongoing pre-feasibility study (PFS) test work focusing on fast tracking Estelle into commercial production.
Fast track production strategy
Nova confirmed that it is prioritising a fast-track production strategy and expects to announce any material PFS test work results and trade-off studies as they become available.
Other upcoming milestones include results and potential new discoveries from the ongoing surface exploration mapping and sampling program. Metallurgical test work is also ongoing, as is environmental test work.
Nova also reported that it has progressed its efforts into the trading of the company’s shares on a major US exchange, saying it is navigating the complex regulatory requirements and differences between the JORC and SK-1300 resource standards.
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