Drilling to Commence at Estelle Gold Copper Project
Melbourne, Aug 27, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The directors of Nova Minerals Limited (Nova or Company) (
ASX:NVA) (QM3:FRA) are pleased to announce that its 2018 exploration field season has commenced with a Reverse Circulation drilling program underway at the Estelle Gold Copper Project in Alaska.
- Installation of all camp facilities at the Estelle Gold Copper Project completed
- 8,000m drilling program to commence immediately
- First assays to be delivered to ALS laboratories in Fairbanks within three weeks
The 114km2 landholding sits adjacent to the 6.3Moz Au, 28.7Moz Ag, 480kt Cu Whistler project (Gold Mining Inc.) and on the same assemblage of rocks that hosts the pebble partnerships giant Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum-silver deposit (105Moz Au, 81b lb Cu, 5.64b lb Mo, 515Moz Ag).
Nova is anticipating drilling at least 8,000 metres over a 6 to 8 week exploration program where the Company has already established 1.1Moz Au to 2.3Moz Au exploration target on less than 1% of the Estelle gold camp (refer to ASX announcement 26 February 2018).
The drilling program is designed to test along strike north and south of the historic discovery hole SE12-001, which cut 387metres at 0.40g/t, most of the mineralisation was found from 31.79m to 397.06m and returned 0.43 g/t Au over 365.27m (refer to ASX announcement 27 April 2018).
Hole SE12-04, drilled to the southeast of the discovery hole in 2012, cut 41.5 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold (refer to ASX announcement 27 April 2018), indicating the drilling was vectoring towards higher gold grades as it approached a strong geophysical anomaly further southeast which will be immediately tested as the potential centre of the intrusion-related gold mineralised system (see Figure 1 in link below).
The initial 8,000 metre first pass RC drill program planned at the Oxide prospect will focus on the strong geophysical anomaly vectoring off drill hole SE12-04. The program is also designed to convert the exploration target into the company's maiden JORC compliant resource at the Oxide prospect with the view of expanding this zone (see Figure 1 in link below). Nova is planning further drill programs with more than 15 targets of interest prospective for major discovery. The project has an established ice road paralleling the Iditarod trail and Skwentna River built by previous operators that can be used to transport equipment to the site for year round drill programs and project development activities.
Nova will adhere to strict Quality Assurance - Quality Control (QA/QC) standards with blanks and/or standards to be utilised; and will collect and submit representative samples at one metre intervals to ALS laboratory in Vancouver, Canada; after being prepared at the preparatory laboratory in Fairbanks, Alaska. Gold will be analysed by Fire Assay and AAS using a 50 gram nominal sample weight (ALS method code Au-AA26). Other elements (33 in total including copper, silver and molybdenum) will be analysed by a four-acid digest and an ICP-MS finish (ALS method code ME-ICP61).
NVA Managing Director, Mr. Avi Kimelman said:
"It's great to be finally through the planning phase and into our maiden drill program. A great deal of work has gone into being well prepared and ensuring we deliver the most cost effective and efficient exploration campaign over the next few weeks at Estelle. It has been an outstanding effort by the site crew on putting this program and logistics together."
"With previous work on the Estelle project establishing great targets, Nova Minerals is fortunate to have a 5 year head start on the project and we believe the project shares many similarities both in size and scale to the Pebble and the Donlin Creek discoveries."
"We look forward to seeing what the initial holes within the strong geophysical anomaly uncovers and keeping our shareholders updated throughout the program. Our maiden JORC remains on schedule for end-2018."
To view figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/6EJ0WB31
About Nova Minerals Limited
Nova Minerals Limited (ASX:NVA) (FRA:QM3) is a Gold, Antimony and Critical Minerals exploration and development company focused on advancing the Estelle Project, comprised of 514 km2 of State of Alaska mining claims, which contains multiple mining complexes across a 35 km long mineralized corridor of over 20 advanced Gold and Antimony prospects, including two already defined multi-million ounce resources, and several drill ready Antimony prospects with massive outcropping stibnite vein systems observed at surface. The 85% owned project is located 150 km northwest of Anchorage, Alaska, USA, in the 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, Barrick's Donlin Creek Gold Project and Kinross Gold Corporation's Fort Knox Gold Mine. The belt also hosts significant Antimony deposits and was a historical North American Antimony producer.
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