Nova Minerals expects resource upgrade after infill drilling at Korbel Main gold deposit
一些公司摆脱了大流行的阴霾，在2021财年取得了积极的业绩。
Infill drilling at the Korbel Main deposit within Nova Minerals’ (ASX: NVA) flagship Estelle gold project in Alaska has confirmed the continuity of mineralisation and paved the way for an update to the indicated mineral resource estimate.
Strong results from one of the holes firmed up the robust resource at Korbel and delivered best results of 67 metres at 0.7 grams per tonne gold, 30m at 0.8g/t, 6m at 1g/t, 9m at 1.1g/t, 3m at 2g/t and 3m at 2.9g/t.
The hole returned an average grade of 0.5g/t gold over 216m from 36m within the Korbel mineralised intrusive which contains multiple high-grade zones.
A second hole returned an overall average grade of 0.4g/t over 219m from 6m, with highlights of 85m at 0.5g/t gold, 18m at 0.6g/t, 12m at 1g/t, 9m at 1.2g/t, 6m at 1.4g/t and 3m at 2.3g/t.
The mineralisation remains open along strike to the northwest and southeast with a predicted strike length of over 3km of continuous gold occurrences.
Nova said the results continue to show that Korbel Main has significant scale with high-grade “blow out” zones.
They will form part of a planned size and confidence upgrade to the deposit’s 4.7-million-ounce resource to expedite project feasibility studies.
Indicated resource
Nova chief executive officer Christopher Gerteisen is hoping a significant portion of the Korbel Main resource can be proved to the indicated category.
“A focus on proving up the resource to indicated status will translate into reserve ounces for our planned starter operation… while unlocking the wider Estelle gold district and bringing value to our company,” he said.
“We aim to grow the global resource inventory and advance Korbel in parallel, which will maximise our ability to more rapidly monetise this world-class asset, bring forward the production start time along with cashflow, and allow us to ramp up future operations across the Korbel Valley and wider Estelle district.”
RPM drilling
Meanwhile, drilling at Nova’s RPM prospect within the Estelle project is in full swing, with six holes completed to date and assays pending.
Drilling remains on track to delineate a maiden resource estimate before year end.
When the campaign kicked off in June, Mr Gerteisen said RPM held potential to increase the company’s resource tonnages outside of Korbel Main and unlock a district containing multiple, large-scale gold deposits.
“RPM is presenting surface features indicative of a much larger footprint than first thought, with a second much larger, high-grade zone now identified,” he said.
“We believe there is a possibility that the prospect’s [RPM1 and RPM2] zones converge at depth, and this drilling program is designed to test this theory.”