North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Nova Minerals Ltd. Oct. 5 reported a 3.3-million-ounce gold resource for the Korbel deposit on the company’s Estelle gold project in Alaska.

According to this updated calculation, Block B at Korbel hosts 291 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.4 grams per metric ton gold. This is roughly a 32% increase over the maiden resource calculated for Korbel in 2019 and Nova expects to continue to grow the resource as drill results from an expanded 2020 drill program continue to roll in.

"We are very pleased with the results of this Interim Mineral Resource Estimate which represents a ‘snap-shot in time’ and is based on very few of the additional drill results of the total planned drill program,” said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen. “Importantly, the thickness of mineralization at Korbel Blocks A and B is consistent throughout, which provides an exciting opportunity to significantly grow our resources beyond this point.”

Following the release of the mineral resource for Block B, Nova reported that drilling has now connected blocks A and B into one contiguous deposit that extends for more than 1,500 meters along strike.

KDBH-022, the hole that demonstrated the continuity between the blocks, cut 140 meters averaging 0.4 g/t gold.

The company also received assay results from KDBH-020, which cut 250 meters of 0.4 g/t gold from a drill pad at Block B.

So far, Nova has drilled 48 holes at Estelle this year, which completes the originally planned 25,000-meter program for 2020. Assay results from 30 of these holes drilled in Korbel blocks A and B are pending and the company has extended the 2020 program to roughly 40,000 meters.

The expanded program includes follow-up drilling at Block B Southeast Extension zone, where drilling completed earlier this year cut 429 meters of 0.6 g/t gold from a depth of three meters, including 101 meters averaging 1.3 g/t gold and several multi-gram subsections.

“Several high-grade areas have been intersected within the Korbel deposit through drilling to date, a highlight being the newly discovered Block B southeast extension zone,” said Gerteisen.

In addition to drilling in Korbel blocks A and B, the company has now begun testing blocks C and D, which are 100 to 1,000 meters to the west.

“The Korbel deposit continues to grow as we now unlock Block D and C with our expanded drilling program as we seek to find further feeder systems within the Korbel prospect,” the Nova Minerals CEO added.

The company reports that drilling has encountered arsenopyrite-quartz veining in early drilling at Block D, a good indication of gold mineralization.

Nova geologists have also identified intriguing targets at several other prospect areas – Cathedral, You Beauty, Isabella, and Sweet Jenny – within 2,000 meters of the Korbel deposits.

“While increasing resource volume has been our primary focus until now, we will begin to follow-up and delineate these zones with the additional drilling planned through 2021 and beyond,” Gerteisen said.

Sampling of outcropping quartz-arsenopyrite veining earlier this year at Cathedral returned values of 2.97 to 114 g/t gold. These high-grade gold samples have elevated Cathedral to one of Nova's highest priority drill targets for the 2021 program at Estelle.

Nova Minerals Ltd.

“With these positive developments, additional drilling has been planned and we will continue unabated, now increasing the drilling from the current 25,000 meters up to 40,000 meters for 2020 and up to 80,000 meters is planned for 2021,” said the Nova Minerals CEO. “The additional 2020 drilling will also be included in the global resource upgrade planned for 2021, where we will also be looking at proving up a significant portion of the resource to the higher confidence measured and indicated categories. This upcoming global resource will be a key input to the economic studies which have now commenced on blocks A and B with activities including detailed metallurgical test work, including ore sorting, and other long lead study items.”

Nova is awaiting results from ore sorting tests and a preliminary economic assessment for Korbel is now underway.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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