Nova Minerals boosts Thompson Brothers tenements, posts exploration target
Drill core from Nova Minerals’ Thompson Brothers lithium project.
Nova Minerals (ASX: NVA) has boosted its landholding at its Thompson Brothers project, while publishing an exploration target for part of the project.
The company has added 3,440 hectares to its original claim block at the Thompson Brothers project. The new block boosts the company’s landholding in the region by 186% to 5,229ha.
According to Nova, much of the new landholding is unexplored; however, historic references across the company’s new claims have noted numerous pegmatite bodies.
As Canada moves into its spring and summer months, Nova plans to undertake a field campaign to follow-up on these pegmatites and hopefully discover new ones.
In addition to boosting its landholding in the region, Nova has devised an exploration target for the southern section of Thompson Brothers that has been drilled. The target represents less than 2% of the newly expanded project area.
Nova has determined up to 13 million tonnes grading 1.70% lithium is a feasible estimate for this part of the project.
The maiden drilling program at Thompson Brothers was finished late last month, with Nova currently working on its first JORC-compliant resource estimate. The company will also use the drill data to plan is next campaign.
Pegmatites found from data review
Earlier this week, Nova reported it had discovered a cluster of spodumene-bearing pegmatites Thompson Brothers after reviewing historical data.
Consulting geologists identified the cluster, known as the SG zone, about 2km south of the Thompson Brother pegmatite where Nova has just completed drilling.
The historical data has uncovered results from a 1942 drilling program that comprised 21 shallow holes for 608m at the SG-1 pegmatite.
Lithium grades from the data were between 7.22% and 31.9% with widths ranging between 1.52m and 5.79m.
The data also revealed mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth.
“With the continued data compilation and desktop work, we are excited with the findings that the SG zone may contain significant lithium mineralisation in addition to the known Thompson Brothers spodumene zone,” NVA managing director Avi Kimelman said.
“The SG target hasn’t been explored with modern day exploration techniques to fully test the dykes at depth and along strike.”
He added the find increases the project’s scale and potential for further lithium-bearing pegmatites.
Nova will design a field mapping and drilling program to evaluate SG-1 and the SG-2 pegmatites. The company believes they could contribute to the resource inventory for the Thompson Brothers project.
Thompson Brothers lithium project
Nova is earning an 80% interest in the Thompson Brothers project which covers 1,829ha in Manitoba.
Preliminary drill results from the Thompson Brothers pegmatite have produced 26.94m grading 1.53% lithium, 8m grading 1.46% lithium and 2.83m grading 1.18% lithium.
By late afternoon trade, Nova’s share price was up more than 9% to A$0.035.