The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drilling expands RPM North, affirms RPM South gold zone North of 60 Mining News – December 23, 2022
Drilling has confirmed zones of gold mineralization at RPM South that are geologically linked to RPM North gold deposit.
Nova Minerals is now considering two independent gold mining centers on its district-scale Estelle project in Alaska.
Nova Minerals Ltd. Dec. 21 said its resource expansion drilling at RPM is building a strong case for this high-grade gold deposit to be a second smaller mining center on the company's Estelle project in Alaska.
Located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, the 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) Estelle property hosts two deposits with a combined 9.6 million ounces of gold and multiple prospects and targets across an 18-mile- (29 kilometers) long trend.
RPM, which lies about 16 miles south of the 8.1-million-ounce Korbel gold deposit at Estelle, hosts 23.1 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging two grams per metric ton (1.5 million oz) gold.
During the 2022 summer season, Nova drilled 23 resource expansion holes at RPM North, which hosts the current resource, and eight exploration holes at RPM South, an adjacent target with no previous drilling.
Nova began its 2022 RPM drilling near RPM-005, a 2021 hole that cut an incredible 132 meters averaging 10.5 g/t gold, and then stepped out to the west.
Highlights from previously reported holes from the 2022 drilling at RPM North include:
• 140 meters averaging 6.5 g/t gold from a depth of 44 meters in RPM-008, including 56 meters averaging 10.1 g/t gold and two meters averaging 53.4 g/t gold.
• 155 meters averaging 2.4 g/t gold from a depth of 16 meters in hole RPM-010, including 30 meters averaging 10 g/t gold and three meters averaging 56.4 g/t gold.
• 258 meters averaging 5.1 g/t gold from surface in hole RPM-015, including 161 meters averaging 8.1 g/t gold, and 14 meters averaging 51.2 g/t gold.
• 67 meters averaging 10.4 g/t gold from a depth of 112 meters in hole RPM-022, including 34 meters of 19.4 g/t gold.
The latest batch of assay results include additional holes that cut broad sections of strong gold mineralization at RPM North; highlights include:
• 76 meters averaging 1.8 g/t gold from a depth of 95 meters in hole RPM-030, including 21 meters of 4.5 g/t gold.
• 111 meters averaging 1.6 g/t gold from a depth of 93 meters in hole RPM-035, including 24 meters of 4.7 g/t gold.
• 98 meters averaging 1.7 g/t gold from a depth of 41 meters in hole RPM-037, including 12 meters of 9.5 g/t gold.
Nova's inaugural drilling at RPM South cut wide sections of lower-grade gold and provided evidence of a geological link to RPM North.
Highlights from the 2022 drilling at RPM South include:
• 101 meters averaging 0.7 g/t gold from a depth of three meters in RPM-013, including 18 meters of 1 g/t gold.
• 259 meters averaging 0.6 g/t gold from a depth of five meters in RPM-019, including 39 meters of 1 g/t gold.
• 309 meters averaging 0.5 g/t gold from a depth of seven meters in RPM-026, including 40 meters of 0.8 g/t gold.
"While the initial RPM South holes replicate the early discovery results which we saw at RPM North in hole SE12-008, which led us to the bonanza blow out zone, importantly the 2022 drilling has now also confirmed a second much thicker mineralized intrusive which connects the RPM North and RPM South zones, demonstrating a genetic link between the two areas," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen. "With over 600m of strike length between the two zones, and similar geological observations to RPM North, the deposit remains wide open, with the search now on for more super high-grade bonanza zones providing further upside resource potential as we move forward."
Overall, Nova has completed 30,000 meters of drilling since the 9.6-million-oz resource estimate was calculated about this time last year. Assays are still pending for holes drilled at the Korbel Main deposit and the nearby Cathedral and You Beauty targets.
The company plans to incorporate the results from the 2022 drilling into an updated resource estimate, which will be included in a phase-two scoping study for developing a gold mining operation at Estelle.
Given the 2022 success at RPM, it is expected this study will evaluate the potential of developing standalone gold mining operations – one centered on Korbel to support deposits delineated at the North end of RPM and a second at RPM to support deposits developed at the south end of the district-scale project.
"With long-term opportunity and the prospect of multiple mining centers across the single project, we continue on our path to becoming a world class, global gold producer," said Gerteisen.
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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