Nova Minerals Ltd. July 3 announced the start of a 15,000-meter drill program targeting the higher-grade gold mineralization identified in the RPM and Train areas at the southern end of Estelle, a district-scale Alaska property that hosts 1.1 billion metric tons of global resources averaging 0.3 grams per metric ton (9.9 million ounces) gold.

"We are very excited to return to the field again in 2023 to continue to build on the exceptional growth we have shown in just four years having now defined a massive 9.9 Moz gold resource across four large deposits on the district scale Estelle Gold Project," said Nova Minerals CEO Christopher Gerteisen.

While the Korbel area at the north end of the Estelle property hosts the bulk of the Estelle gold resources, the RPM deposits about 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the south are higher grade.

The RPM North deposit hosts 4.7 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 2.3 g/t (340,000 oz) gold and 26 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.6 g/t (480,000 oz) gold.

The adjacent RPM South hosts another 31 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.4 g/t (420,000 oz) gold.

The 2023 Estelle program has begun with drilling on a ridgeline at RPM focused on upgrading and expanding the higher-grade gold zones at both RPM deposits.

Highlights from previous RPM Ridge drilling include:

• 400 meters averaging 3.5 g/t gold in hole RPM-005.

• 260 meters averaging 3.6 g/t gold in hole RPM-008.

• 258 meters averaging 5.1 g/t gold in hole RPM-015.

Once the ridgeline drilling is complete, the rig will be moved to the valley to test a 600-meter area linking RPM North and South.

In December, Nova reported that deeper drilling encountered a much larger mineralized intrusive at RPM North, and structural data from oriented core indicates a geological connection to RPM South.

Highlights from some of the holes that encountered this large intrusive body include:

• 76 meters averaging 1.2 g/t gold from a depth of 440 meters in hole RPM-025.

• 103 meters averaging 1 g/t gold from a depth of 325 meters in hole RPM-037.

• 79 meters averaging 1 g/t gold from a depth of 471 meters in hole RPM-037.

Nova is also building pads for its first drilling at Train, a highly prospective area about 4.5 miles (seven kilometers) north of RPM with similar mineralization.

Surface samples collected from the Train and adjacent Shoeshine targets by Nova geologists in 2021 returned grades of up to 30.4 g/t, 24.5 g/t, 21.6 g/t, 7.5 g/t, 5.7 g/t, and 5.4 g/t gold.

Similar high grades were returned from Train in 2022 – 80.2 g/t, 17.9 g/t, 17.7 g/t, 16.6 g/t, and 10.4 g/t gold.

The Nova exploration team also collected high-grade gold samples from the Trumpet discovery, which lies about a mile (1.5 kilometers) north of Train. Highlights from the 2022 sampling at Trumpet include 32.8 g/t, 16.6 g/t, 16.0 g/t, 13.6 g/t, and 12.7 g/t gold.

Nova says geological observations indicate the strong potential that Shoeshine, Train, and Trumpet represent a large high-grade gold system similar to RPM.

Nova Minerals Ltd.

"Our team has already done a tremendous job setting up a highly targeted drill season designed to increase the resource at RPM and also to potentially unlock another RPM style deposit in the Train area this year," said Gerteisen.

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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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