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Nova Minerals Limited (ASX:NVA) Drilling Now Commenced at Cathedral within the Korbel Valley
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 Nova Minerals Limited (ASX:NVA) (FRA:QM3) (OTCMKTS:NVAAF) is pleased to advise that a focused drilling program has commenced at Cathedral with one diamond rig operating. The drilling program aims to rapidly test for shallow (<100m) resource extensions at Cathedral which has the potential to be the feeder system of the 8.1Moz Korbel Main Deposit, within the Company's flagship Estelle Gold Project, located in the prolific Tintina Gold Belt in Alaska.
Highlights
- Resource extension drilling campaign has commenced at Cathedral within the wider Korbel Valley (Figure 1*)
- Korbel Main already host to a 8.1Moz Au Resource (3Moz Au Indicated and 5.1Moz Inferred - ASX Announcement: 23 December 2021)
- Cathedral has the potential to unlock another area of the wider Korbel Valley in very close proximity to the proposed Korbel Central Processing Facility (Figure 2*)
- Korbel Main and Cathedral represent only two of the seven named target areas within the wider Korbel Valley, with further identified targets to be drill tested in the future (Figure 3*)
- Results pending from the infill drilling completed at Korbel Main, with the view to increasing further material into the Indicated category
- Drilling is ongoing at RPM, with further drill results to be reported as assay results become available from the laboratory
- Exploration efforts are focused on identifying large scale resource extensions and new large scale discoveries, with in excess of 50 holes drilled at RPM and Korbel yet to be announced
- Despite the slow assay turn around times from the laboratory, PFS level test work and trade off optimization studies have now commenced across the Estelle Gold Trend (Figure 4*)
Nova CEO, Mr Christopher Gerteisen commented: "We are pleased to have recommenced drilling in the wider Korbel Valley area again with a targeted program that will test the theory of Cathedral being the high-grade feeder zone to the already established 8.1Moz Korbel Main Deposit. Rock chip samples obtained in 2020 showed that Cathedral could open up another significant area within the wider Korbel Valley with the potential to provide a localized higher grade feed for the proposed Korbel Central Processing Facility for the starter years.
In addition to the drilling at both Cathedral and RPM, and in light of the bottleneck at the assay laboratory, we have now also commenced our PFS level test work and trade off optimization studies in tandem with the ongoing Phase 2 Scoping Study, as we continue on our path towards commercial production across the Estelle Gold Trend."
Cathedral Exploration Program
In 2020, reconnaissance field activity sampled at Cathedral, located within the wider Korbel Valley just south of the Korbel Main Deposit, which focused on the quartz-arsenopyrite veining present in the outcrops within the target area, returned results with values up to 114 g/t gold, as well as five other results grading higher than 10g/t gold (ASX Announcement: 26 August 2020) including:
- 98.3g/t, 37.1g/t, 24.5g/t, 19.6g/t and 11.05g/t
These high-grade grab samples, and the correlation between gold and arsenopyrite which has been proven from drilling and metallurgical testing within the Korbel Main Deposit, provides encouragement that the Cathedral target has the potential to be the feeder system for the large presently identified gold system at Korbel Main.
The resource potential within the Korbel Valley alone has progressively grown in stature with each round of drilling completed to date. This targeted drilling is not only aimed at increasing the size of the resources in the immediate area, but will also give Nova an improved geological understanding of the systems within the wider Korbel Valley (Figure 3*).
Remuneration
With the Nova team's significant workload operating 24/7/365, results thus far, and cost savings, the Company has agreed to issue unquoted options to various employees, consultants, and Directors ("Plan Options"). The options will be issued under the current Employee Share Option Plan ("ESOP" - ASX Announcement 21 December 2020) and vest based on continuous employment as at the date of the announcement of a Pre-Tax NPV of at least $1 Billion on the Estelle Gold Project, in either the Phase 2 Scoping Study or PFS, with an exercise price of $1.20 and an expiry date of 30 November 2025. The Plan Options to be issued to Directors, are subject to shareholder approval.
*To view tables and figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/5XR09Q3L
Nova Minerals Ltd
P: +61-3-9614-0600
F: +61-3-9614-0550
WWW: novaminerals.com.au
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