Nova Minerals unveils high-grade gold and antimony at Stoney

Nova Minerals (ASX: NVA) has continued its run of exploration success in Alaska with more quality results from the Stoney, West Wing and T5 prospects in the central portion of the claim tenements within the Estelle gold project.

A combination of field observations, assay results from 2023 surface samples and the re-examination of multi-element data from historical samples has confirmed the presence of high-grade gold and coincident, silver, copper and antimony in the Stoney tenement.

“The greater Stoney area, which now includes West Wing and T5, has a strong polymetallic signature with elevated levels of silver, copper and antimony – in addition to gold,” head of exploration Hans Hoffman said.

“Our field crews are eager to get back here in 2024 to follow up on these anomalies and to collect chip samples across the main Stoney vein.”

Stoney was one of many areas identified by Mr Hoffman during his extensive surface exploration mapping and sampling program across the entire Estelle gold project during the 2023 field season.

High-priority target

Chief executive officer Christopher Gerteisen said the latest results have further confirmed Stoney’s priority prospect status as a high-grade gold and multi-element target.

“It’s yet another discovery, adding to the 20+ known prospects that highlights the massive exploration upside potential across the Estelle project area.”

“To note, the number of high-grade soil samples returning more than 1 gram per tonne gold extending across the prospect is usually a good indicator for the potential of a large mineralised system, so it’s certainly exciting.”

“We have truly only scratched the surface across the Estelle project and expect further discoveries as we systematically explore the 513 sq km claim block.”

“With the promising multi-element results that are being returned at numerous prospects now, we are beginning to fully appreciate the potential for copper, silver, antimony and other critical elements to provide significant by-product credits in future production.”

Multi-element potential

Highlight results from Stoney include 48.4g/t gold, 2,720g/t silver, 8.5% copper and 1.3% antimony.

“To be clear, we are a gold company and our primary focus has been to search and find gold, […] now this multitude of elements, some of which are very lucrative in their own right, are finding us,” Mr Gerteisen said.

“We intend to take advantage of the fact that these additional elements are coincident with the gold and pursue this potential.”

“As such, we will continue to follow up and analyse for these elements as we move forward with our exploration programs.”

“The potential upside is immense as we advance these prospects towards resource definition on our path to production,” he said.

Stoney vein significance

The Stoney vein, which measures up to 10 meters wide with nearly 1km exposed at surface and nearly 300m of vertical relief, is the primary source of mineralisation in the area.

Splays off the Stoney vein and interpreted continuations of this vein have been identified over a 3.8km strike length.

The vein system is highly anomalous in gold, silver, copper and antimony, while two outcrop samples collected in 2023 were also anomalous in cobalt.

Further sampling at T5 in 2023 identified potential splays of the Stoney Vein, sharing similar multi-element anomalous values.

2023 exploration results

Last week, Nova reported the new studies had uncovered significant new golden opportunities at the Tomahawk and Trundle prospects in the central portion of the Estelle project located in the prolific Tintina Gold Belt in Alaska.

Previous finds made at Estelle in the latest examination of results from the 2023 field season program include the Discovery, Muddy Creek, Stibium, Styx, Train, Trumpet and Wombat prospects.