Commencement of Drilling at the Estelle Gold Camp
Melbourne, June 21, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The directors of Nova Minerals Limited (Nova or Company) (
ASX:NVA) (QM3:FRA) are pleased to announce the commencement of drilling following the successful and ongoing Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical survey works at the Oxide prospect on the Estelle Gold Project. Surface sampling and mapping program to commence early July at RPM and Shoeshine prospects to expand the projects exploration footprint.
At the 118.5km2 Estelle project, Nova's 2018 mapping campaign at Oxide conducted by Pacific Rim Geological Consulting of Fairbanks Alaska demonstrated that higher gold values are associated with bismuth telluride and arsenopyrite mineral phases and this mineralogy is hosted by sheeted quartz veins containing narrow alteration selvages (see photos below). These geological observations are consistent with observations in the published research (Goldfarb et al., 2007) for gold mineralization that fits the Intrusive-Related Gold Systems (IRGS) genetic model. Similar IRGS deposits in the region is the 9.2 million oz Au Fort Knox mine owned by Kinross Gold or the 6.0 million oz Au Dublin Gulch project owned by Victoria Gold both located within the Tintina Gold Province (ASX release: 19/06/2019).
Primary focus will be given to the Oxide occurrences, which were last drilled by Millrock Resources Inc. in 2010. During last years field season Tom Bundtzen of Pacific Rim Geological Consulting Inc. completed a first pass geological mapping of the Oxide occurrences and identified two high quality targets (ASX Announcement 3 December 2018). These targets were given the designation of Oxide North and Oxide south. The key feature of these targets is that they consist of broad envelopes containing argillic-phyllic to propylitic hydrothermal alteration.
A group of chip samples taken by Mr Bundtzen from these alteration envelopes contains moderate (~1%) arsenopyrite mineralization (+/- pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and tetrahedrite) that returned moderate grades of up to 1.04 g/t Au having an average grade 0.183 g/t Au. Oxide North and Oxide South alteration envelopes measures 1300 to 1600 metres along strike and have widths of between 550 to 600 metres. Total depth extents of these alteration envelopes are unknown at this time (ASX release: 28/03/2019).
Once drilling is completed an analysis will then be undertaken with the view of establishing a maiden JORC Inferred Resource across the Oxide North Area.
NVA Managing Director, Mr. Avi Kimelman said:
"It's great to be back drilling at the District Scale Estelle Gold Project. 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 team."
"We are focussed on drilling the oxide zone, one of fifteen known prospects across the project. The Estelle project area has a multiple of alterations, structures and known targets on the large tenure with similarities to that of Kinross' Fort Knox Gold and Victoria Gold's Dublin Gulch Eagles Gold Mine."
Prioritised Systematic Exploration Strategy
The Company's ranked and prioritised systematic exploration strategy and activities at Estelle are guided by an exploration "Project Pipeline" process to maximise the probability of multiple major discoveries (see Table 1 in link below). Each Milestone is defined by a specific deliverable and has each criteria needs to be ticked to determine which prospect must pass through before moving to the next Milestone. Economic criteria and probability of success increase as projects move along the pipeline. The methodology helps to ensure work is carried out across all stages of the process, cost are kept minimal and that focus is kept on the best quality targets and that the pipeline is kept full with early Milestone projects.
Summary and outlook
With the IP survey works ongoing, drilling now commenced, and sampling and mapping at RPM and Shoeshine to commence in July, the Nova Minerals team looks forward to updating shareholders on our progress with what is turning out to be an exciting and much larger project than we had first envisaged.
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/LSNYV60H
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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