Following this week’s release of a Phase 2 scoping study for the Estelle gold project in Alaska, Nova Minerals’ (ASX: NVA) has confirmed that crews are now onsite to commence preparations for this year’s field exploration program.
The study was based on a scenario which mines the higher grade parts of the deposit and excludes a 2 million ounce inferred resource at the Cathedral prospect.
It confirmed the potential for a commercially-robust mining operation at Estelle with an 11-month payback period and strong financial and mining metrics.
The study is believed to have provided considerable exploration upside and a solid platform for growth, and identified opportunities for immediate improvement of metallurgical test works which would add to the bottom line.
Preparation work
Helicopters, pad builders, and geologists are now on site to commence preparation work and pad building for this year’s drilling season, with an average of three rigs and 15,000 metres to focus on the RPM and Train discoveries.
At RPM, Nova will aim to further infill and expand the at-surface, higher grade resources at the North and South targets and the high-priority 600m continuous area which links the two deposits and where recent holes intersected a second large mineralised intrusive.
At Train, where RPM-style mineralisation was discovered, Nova will try to define a third gold resource in the area.
Exploration will include surface mapping and sampling programs and will also focus on a highly-prospective 3 kilometre-long polymetallic gold-silver-copper system at the Stoney prospect.
Sensitive to improvements
The scoping study showed how sensitive the Estelle project is to improvements in life-of-mine mill feed grades above the current grade of 0.73 grams per tonne gold.
Nova chief executive officer Christopher Gerteisen said drilling would focus on the southern area of the 450 square kilometre site to potentially improve the economic metrics.
“This year our drill program and test work is aimed at honing in on walk-up targets to rapidly increase our mill feed grade and optimise metallurgical studies further for higher recoveries,” he said.
“We are confident that the combination of economic and technical strengths which come from having a large, bulk-tonnage project in a Tier 1 location, will drive shareholder value as we continue to unlock the Estelle project on our path towards production.”
