Maiden Drilling Campaign Commences at the Train Prospect
Melbourne, Aug 21, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Nova Minerals Limited (
ASX:NVA) (QM3:FRA) (NVAAF:OTCMKTS) is pleased to announce that its targeted drilling campaign is now underway at Train with an additional rig now mobilized and turning at the highly prospective Train area.
Nova continues to unlock the Estelle gold district with the commencement of a maiden drill program at the RPM style Train area to further grow the size and confidence of the already established 9.9 Moz gold resource.
Highlights
- Maiden drill program now underway at the Train prospect located approximately 7 km North of the high-grade RPM deposit (Figure 1*)
- Up to 12 diamond holes are planned to be drilled into select prospective targets (subject to observation of mineralization) with the aim to develop an inferred resource in the area this year
- Targeting never before drill tested intrusion related gold structures and shear hosted mineralized zones which were the source of the high-grade rock chip samples (Figures 2 and 3*) along a 1.5 km gold trend (ASX Announcement: 16 January 2023)
- RPM North and RPM South drilling is now complete with assays pending, and drilling at the RPM area is now focused on the second intrusive encountered in the 2022 drill program (Figure 4*)
- As part of the ongoing PFS test work, Nova has commenced a strategic review with a focus to fast track Estelle into commercial production
Upcoming Milestones
- Update on potential US listing options
- Material PFS test work results and trade-off studies as they become available, with a fast track production strategy being the priority
- Drilling and assay results at the RPM area
- Drilling and assay results at the Train area
- Updated global MRE following the assay results return (Improvements on mill feed grade being the focus)
- Results and potential new discoveries from the ongoing surface exploration mapping and sampling program
- Metallurgical test work ongoing
- Environmental test work ongoing
- West Susitna access road updates
Nova CEO, Mr Christopher Gerteisen commented: "We are excited to be putting the first holes into our never before drill tested Train prospect where surface gold occurrences collected over several years by geologists have indicated that another large IRGS gold structure, similar to the highgrade structure at RPM, maybe hosted.
The first pass exploration drilling at Train this year has been specifically designed to test the mineralized structures and controls on mineralization, along with lithology, alteration styles and mineralization types, to better understand where the gold expressed at surface originates from.
Subject to the results of this drilling, the aim is to develop a maiden inferred resource at Train this year.
In addition, the Board has commenced a strategic review, including further optimization studies, designed to investigate how the company can get Estelle into commercial production quicker, as part of the ongoing PFS trade off studies.
We look forward to reporting the results from both the drill campaign at Train and the optimization studies as they are received".
As previously announced, this year the intention is to have 3 diamond rigs with PFS stage drilling focusing on both increasing the drill density of the resource, plus extensional drilling to further grow the global gold resource. The drill rigs will be in operation 24 hours a day on rotation, 7 days a week.
However, the proposed drilling program is fluid and will be consistently monitored with adjustments being made where deemed necessary based on initial drill core observations as the program progresses throughout the season.
2023 Train Area Drill Program
Drilling has now commenced at Train where previous geological observations and high-grade rock chip samples (ASX Announcement: 16 January 2023) obtained from the Train and Trumpet prospects (Figures 1, 2 and 3*), including;
- Train - 80.2 g/t Au, 30.4 g/t Au, 24.5 g/t Au, 21.6 g/t Au and 17.9 g/t Au
- Trumpet - 32.8 g/t Au, 16.6 g/t Au, 16.0 g/t Au, 13.6 g/t Au and 12.7 g/t Au
- 1.5 km link between Train and Trumpet - 30.4 g/t Au & 21.6 g/t Au
This provides the potential for another very large exposed at surface intrusion related gold system (IRGS) in the area, located just 7km north of RPM.
The drilling at Train has been designed to test the origin of the at surface gold observations, with the ultimate aim to define a 3rd major resource area (Korbel, RPM and Train) and 5th large gold deposit on the district scale Estelle Gold Project in 2023.
2023 RPM Area Drill Program Update
With drilling now completed at both the RPM North and RPM South pads, and assays pending, the drills have been moved to focus on the second intrusive which was intersected in the lower part of holes RPM-037 (ASX Announcement: 21 December 2022) and RPM-025 (ASX Announcement: 4 October 2022), with results including:
- RPM-037: 103m @ 1.0 g/t Au, incl 30m @ 1.9 g/t Au, 21m @ 2.5 g/t Au from 325m
- RPM-037: 79m @ 1.0 g/t Au from 471m, incl. 30m @ 2.0 g/t Au from 501m
- RPM-025: 76m @ 1.2 g/t Au from 440m, incl 43m @ 1.5 g/t Au from 474m
Strategic Review to get Estelle into Production Earlier
The Board has now commenced a strategic review of the project, and recently released scoping study, with further optimization studies as part of the ongoing PFS test work to be fast tracked to investigate how the company can get Estelle into commercial production quicker.
*To view tables and figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/0R2B72I8
About Nova Minerals Limited
Nova Minerals Limited's (ASX:NVA) (FRA:QM3) (OTCMKTS:NVAAF) vision is to develop North America's next major gold trend. The company is focused on exploration in Alaska's prolific Tintina Gold Belt, a province which hosts a 220 million ounce (Moz) documented gold endowment and some of the world's largest gold mines and discoveries including Victoria Gold's Eagle Mine and Kinross Gold Corporation's Fort Knox Gold Mine. The company's flagship Estelle Project has a current total estimated JORC gold resource of 9.6Moz (3Moz Indicated and 6.6Moz Inferred). Estelle is a 45km long string of 15 identified gold prospects bracketed by the Korbel deposit in the north and the RPM deposit in the south. These two deposits are currently host to extensive exploration programs.
Additionally, Nova has an indirect interest in the Canadian Thompson Brothers Lithium Project through a substantial stake in Snow Lake Resources Ltd (NASDAQ:LITM) and holds a 12.99% interest in Torian Resources Limited (ASX:TNR), a gold exploration company based in Western Australia.
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