At the rate Nova Minerals continues to uncover thick, high-grade gold, it won’t be long before the company punches through the +10-million-ounce mark in Alaska.

Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA) has reported more thick, high-grade gold starting at surface at RPM, part of the company’s flagship 9.6Moz Estelle Gold Trend project.

Step out drilling to test the continuity of the high-grade mineralisation at RPM North delivered an impressive 78m at 16 grams per tonne (g/t) from within a broader 258m at 5.1g/t.

This was accompanied by other notable high-grade intersections of 161m at 8.1g/t from surface, including 117m at 11.1g/t, 45m at 25.3g/t and 14m at 51.2g/t.

Another hole returned a broad 113m at 1.4g/t from just 8m, including 82m at 1.7g/t, 55m at 2.1g/t and 11m at 4.5g/t.

These latest high-grade hits follow quickly on the back of extremely positive metallurgical testwork results that demonstrate very high recoveries of 96.2%.

Metallurgical testwork continues to provide confidence with the improved high recoveries expected to deliver capital and operating expenditure savings.

Nova says Estelle is a trend like no other, containing invaluable intrinsic value with 22 more of these known prospects equally as exciting as the RPM and Korbel targets.

“This program is part of a targeted program designed to allow for further increases to potential measured and indicated resources in the next MRE on the high-grade RPM deposit,” CEO Christopher Gerteisen said.

Nova is continuing with its aggressive 2022 drill program to increase the size and confidence of its already massive 9.6Moz resource.

Gerteisen said the aggressive drilling program was paving the way for a phase two scoping study, in tandem with a pre-feasibility study that aimed to increase the gold production schedule and net present value significantly across the Estelle Gold Trend, as Nova continued down the path towards commercial production.

On the fast track

The Estelle Gold Trend is already bigger than projects like market darling De Grey Mining’s (ASX:DEG) Hemi deposit in WA.

Nova has defined two large deposits, Korbel and the RPM deposit, along the 35km corridor in the Tintina gold province – one of the world’s most prolific belts and the site of an historic gold rush.

Korbel is the larger of the two deposits, hosting 8.1Moz and with 3km of strike length remaining wide open with huge upside potential. The RPM deposit, which currently hosts a resource of 1.5Moz, is the highest-grade, with drilling indicating Nova has clipped the side of a high-grade zone running west.

The company’s exploration efforts are focused on identifying large-scale resource extensions and new large-scale discoveries, with over 50 holes drilled at RPM and Korbel yet to be announced.

This article was developed in collaboration with Nova Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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