Christopher Gerteisen, CEO of Nova Minerals, was recently a featured speaker at Benzinga’s “Metals And Mining Market Outlook” Webinar.
The webinar brought together experts and thought leaders from the space to share their insights and discuss the latest market trends and opportunities.
Nova is a leading mining company targeting deposits in the Estelle Gold Trend in Alaska's Tintina Gold Belt. The trend has multiple resource centers, including two already defined multi-million-ounce centers across four deposits containing a combined 9,900,000 oz of gold.
The webinar brought together experts and thought leaders from the space to share their insights and discuss the latest market trends and opportunities.
Nova is a leading mining company targeting deposits in the Estelle Gold Trend in Alaska's Tintina Gold Belt. The trend has multiple resource centers, including two already defined multi-million-ounce centers across four deposits containing a combined 9,900,000 oz of gold.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Christopher Gertysen, he's executive director and CEO of Nova Minerals.
00:04 Christopher, if you'd join me on stage, I know you've got a lot of ground to cover over
00:08 the next 12 or 13 minutes, so I'd like to ask you to do so.
00:12 And I'm going to rejoin you to try to put a bow on today's event and on some of what
00:17 you present.
00:18 So I will see you shortly, but take it away.
00:21 Great.
00:22 Thanks, Matt.
00:23 OK, so it's the Estelle Gold Project, where Nova Minerals is developing North America's
00:27 next major gold trend, as you'll see, quite a large project.
00:32 At a glance, it's a very large landholding, 513 square kilometers of state of Alaska claim
00:39 blocks, where to date we've defined almost 10 million ounces across two deposits, bulk
00:44 tonnage deposit up north at Corbell, and what's really become the jewel in the crown, the
00:50 RPM deposit down south, very high-grade core there.
00:53 In between, 20 other known prospects at various stages of advancement.
00:59 We've been mainly focused on the gold.
01:01 However, as you'll see, we have very exciting antimony, silver, and copper showings as well
01:09 on the project.
01:10 So a little fly around, we're located in the Tintina Gold Province, been one of the most
01:15 prolific belts here in recent decades.
01:18 Some names you might recognize.
01:20 This is the land of the intrusive-related gold system, absolutely massive deposits.
01:25 And as you can see, 10 million-plus ounce deposits, not uncommon in our district.
01:29 We just sit on the southern end of that belt.
01:32 Zooming right in, looking east towards Anchorage and the main population center here in Alaska,
01:37 about 100 miles from Anchorage.
01:39 Infrastructure, always so important with these projects in terms of power.
01:42 We have a number of options there.
01:44 The blue line is the proposed gas pipeline going out to the Donland Project to the west
01:49 of us that'll pass about 10 miles to the north of us.
01:52 So there's a potential offtake there.
01:54 Also just running a transmission line to the gas fields and the main power plant that serves
01:59 Anchorage and the population center here as well.
02:02 Also interestingly, we're looking at micro nuclear reactors, the big push for that in
02:05 Alaska by a lot of the remote native Alaskan villages.
02:09 So and of course, we can always default back position as generators, which are very efficient
02:14 and clean these days as well.
02:15 So we'll choose what fits our timeline and our needs.
02:18 In terms of access, we have a beautiful 4000 foot plus airstrip at the site that we support
02:24 the project year round.
02:25 The pink line is our winter road, very common in this part of the world.
02:29 It is a seasonal road.
02:31 And now we're becoming very excited about the red line.
02:34 This is the proposed West Chesetta Access Road Project, state funded project.
02:38 They're looking to break ground on that in 2025.
02:41 Just to note, all of this is state land, the road, the infrastructure, as well as the project.
02:46 No federal land or native corporation land that we have out here, all state land.
02:52 So the project is a district scale play.
02:55 35 kilometer long mineralized corridor, we've been focused on four main areas, of course,
03:00 Corbell and RPM, which is where we have our resources.
03:03 And then in the center, which has been the focus of our exploration at Stoney and train
03:09 spinning around looking north.
03:12 Now our neighbor there you can see is US gold mining.
03:15 Also listed on the NASDAQ.
03:19 Their deposits there are porphyry copper gold deposits.
03:22 And so very similar like geology.
03:25 So we also have porphyry copper gold potential on our side as well.
03:28 In fact, we have a number of prospects that we are chasing that.
03:32 But looking at the actual deposits now down south, let's go to RPM.
03:36 At RPM, relatively new discovery.
03:39 To date, we've defined that really high grade core of 340,000 ounces.
03:44 That zone there is 820,000 ounces in total.
03:47 And then the most recent discovery RPM South, where there's 420,000 ounces identified in
03:52 our first maiden resource there.
03:54 Here's the drilling.
03:55 And you can see the gray lines with the assay results are previous drilling.
04:01 The black lines are the drilling that we've completed this year.
04:03 A lot of those assay results, we're still waiting for it.
04:09 Let's look at some of the drill resorts.
04:11 Absolutely spectacular here.
04:12 132 meters at 10.1 grams per tonne within a larger intercept of 400 meters at three
04:18 and a half grams per tonne in this hole.
04:20 RPM 005 in that box on the bottom.
04:23 And I could just go on and on here with, we repeated this over and over in that RPM North
04:28 Bonanza zone.
04:29 RPM South, nothing as spectacular, but starting to shape up.
04:33 94 meters at a gram.
04:36 Very wide intercepts, 344 meters at half a gram.
04:39 And internal to that, a couple of, almost 40 meters at a gram there at RPM South.
04:44 So we're still working on that.
04:46 Let's spin it around and look at RPM North, that Bonanza zone.
04:49 This is what you see here on this cross section is that a one gram per tonne cutoff, the gray
04:53 shell.
04:54 And even at that high cutoff, it holds together very nicely, very broad, very continuous.
05:00 Some of the deeper drill holes we've drilled there down into the valley, actually not that
05:04 deep under the surface.
05:06 But down in the valley, you can see another one gram per tonne zone there starting to
05:12 take shape.
05:13 Now, if I put on the 0.3 gram per tonne gray shell, you can see it really starts to bulk
05:18 out.
05:19 And that in our recent scoping study is of course, what the pits drive down on, on that
05:24 material.
05:26 Here now the resource classification in terms of the confidence of the resources.
05:29 Of course, there's the measured portion in that really high dense RPM North Bonanza zone,
05:35 highlighted resources also there, and then the remainder remains inferred.
05:41 So what we've really been focused on now is of course, proving up and expanding this resource.
05:45 You can see here we've drilled up dip of that Bonanza zone to prove up and these inferred
05:51 resources here and expand that.
05:52 We've also drilled some holes down dip and the rocks there look great to expand and increase
05:58 that resource in the Bonanza zone.
05:59 It's still open to the East.
06:02 And we have closed it off here to the West.
06:04 And what we have there is actually a fault and offsetting the RPM Valley.
06:11 That's the same intrusive just offset.
06:13 And then of course we have RPM South up here.
06:15 So Valley and South, all our geological information shows that these two areas connect.
06:20 And so that's our main target there for resource upside.
06:24 There it is 600 meters of strike length of potential resource upside.
06:28 We've already clipped the Northern end of that target intrusive here.
06:31 You can see these results 76 meters at 1.2, 103 meters at a gram, 30 meters at two grams.
06:38 So it's starting to take shape.
06:40 It's looking very good.
06:41 And we hope to find more of those really high grade blowout zones there.
06:44 But the RPM deposit in total is a one kilometer strike length already with all of those zones
06:51 combined.
06:52 So there's RPM.
06:54 Let's move over here just a short distance, six kilometers to the North to one of our
06:57 hottest exploration targets.
06:59 Another massive intrusive related gold system here.
07:02 And you can see that some of the highest results, 80 grams per ton, a few 30 gram per ton, 40
07:07 grams per ton, a number of zones there that we're excited about here.
07:12 You know, the Shoeshine area here, the Muddy Creek area here is train prospect proper.
07:19 And then Trumpet is our first target area there for our next drilling campaign to try
07:23 to establish a third resource at the Estelle project is right here between train and Trumpet.
07:31 1.5 kilometers of strike length there.
07:33 And you can see this photo on the right hand side, very thick, high grade, she had veins
07:39 ripping through that area that our drilling will target to again, try to establish a third
07:43 resource.
07:44 Now let's head North along our proposed road network.
07:47 We've already done the high level survey there and we hope to break ground on these roads
07:50 next year.
07:51 Moving past our fully winterized 80 man camp there with all the facilities on site prep
07:57 lab and move North up here to the Corbell deposit area.
08:02 Number of anomalies and prospects we've been working on there.
08:04 I really want to focus on these black dots.
08:07 That's where we have our deposits.
08:08 Corbell main 6.6 million ounces, and already 3 million of those ounces in the indicated
08:13 category and then the nearby cathedral deposit where maiden resource first rounder drilling
08:20 yielded 2 million ounces.
08:22 At Corbell main, absolutely massive bulk tonnage deposit, 2.5 kilometer strike length on that
08:28 thing.
08:29 And then 500 meters away, the first drilling at cathedral at a minimum, another Corbell
08:33 main starting to take shape at cathedral there.
08:37 But Corbell main, which is the main deposit there, this is a long section looking East,
08:42 lower grade deposit, bulk tonnage, hundreds of millions of tons here.
08:46 There is a higher grade core in the center of feeder zone.
08:49 And what do I mean by that?
08:50 I mean, 101 meters at 1.3 grams per ton, 113 meters at 1 gram per ton.
08:57 And so that feeder zone, if I put on the 0.5 gram per ton grade shell, you can see it encompasses
09:03 that feeder zone, that higher grade zone.
09:06 And it really is quite continuous through there.
09:08 Spinning around now looking Northwest, let's put on the 0.3 gram per ton grade shell, and
09:14 it really starts to bulk out.
09:16 This thing is already over 800 million tons here.
09:19 And what do we intend to do with that?
09:21 And with some of these lower grades, especially.
09:24 So you can see, here's the higher grade feeder structure.
09:27 That'll be direct mill feed.
09:28 And this lower grade material, if you understand this deposit, there's sheeted veins in there.
09:32 When you selectively sample the veins, they're running ounces per ton, extreme high grades.
09:37 And it's not a grade issue per se.
09:39 It's a vein density is less out in these lower grade zones.
09:43 And so we intend to employ ore sorting, XRT density ore sorting, where our test work has
09:48 shown we can take 0.3, 0.4 gram material and upgrade it up to 6 grams per ton.
09:53 And that's how we intend to optimize this particular deposit.
09:57 Here the resource classification, most in-pit resources there are indicated.
10:01 We've been working on this years before we even found RPM.
10:04 It's still some inferred, some potential upside there.
10:07 And then of course, cathedral here, which is all inferred, made in resource, lots of
10:11 work still to do there.
10:13 To follow up some of these rock chips, and this is what I'm talking about.
10:16 Some of these chips, these samples are taken from that vein material.
10:19 You can see 114 grams per ton, 98 grams per ton.
10:22 And that's what the ore sorters will separate out when we process this material.
10:27 Speaking of processing, let's zoom into our proposed plant site.
10:32 This has all been scoped out in our scoping study, right next to the pit, short haul,
10:36 so important.
10:37 And look at our process flow sheet based on extensive metallurgical test work.
10:41 Nothing fancy going here, off the shelf, conventional technology.
10:44 We crush, we mill, then we concentrate through flotation.
10:47 And then that concentrate, we regrind that down to 22 microns, and then we leach it.
10:53 And we get over 96% recovery already at the scoping level.
10:57 It is particulate gold.
10:59 It can be quite easily liberated as the recovery values show there.
11:04 And then later on, after RPM and that higher grade material at Corbell's process, then
11:09 we get into the lower grade material, with the ore sorting comes online.
11:12 A lot of mines looking for old stockpiles at the end of their mine life.
11:16 We got 10 plus years of material that we can ore sort there at Corbell and potentially
11:22 at RPM as well.
11:23 Now, that's Corbell.
11:24 Let's move to another exploration target in the Stoney area.
11:28 Stoney is a little bit of a different animal.
11:29 Not only do we have high grade gold there, but also high grade copper and silver as well.
11:35 So polymetallic system here, and also very exciting, we're starting to see antimony there
11:41 this year.
11:42 And speaking of antimony, we've also made another discovery here at Stibium.
11:47 And this is a gold antimony target.
11:50 And in the interest of time, I won't get into antimony too much, but it is one of the most
11:55 critical strategic metals known to man that makes our life go round and round.
12:01 So many civilian and defense applications use antimony, and there's no US production
12:06 of antimony.
12:07 And so we're finding antimony in some of our gold deposits.
12:11 Anything over 0.1% has the potential to add some serious and significant byproduct credits
12:17 in terms of the economics of the deposits.
12:19 You can see here, 60.5% antimony.
12:22 Massive stibnite out there.
12:23 That of course, is the primary ore mineral for antimony that we're finding there.
12:29 And then it sticks as well.
12:30 New discovery this year, seeing some gold, but look at this high grade antimony there
12:35 in this area, 21%, 19% antimony.
12:39 That is just spectacular, massive stibnite there as well.
12:43 And we hope to take advantage of this opportunity and secure supply chain for the US.
12:49 So that's the project.
12:50 You can see district scale play will be out there for decades when we finally get mining
12:55 out there.
12:56 Here's our resource growth story.
12:59 It's quite a story.
13:01 In four years, we've gone from two and a half million ounces to almost 10 million ounces
13:05 to date.
13:06 And of course, it's not just about quantity, it's about quality of resources.
13:09 We recognize that.
13:10 And our main objective right now is proving these resources up into those measured and
13:14 indicated categories.
13:15 And we believe that work will yield secondary bonus of getting further resource growth.
13:20 We did complete a scoping study earlier this year, kind of a snapshot in time to see how
13:26 viable is this project looking.
13:28 And you can see the results came back quite positive.
13:31 17 year mine life, 11 month payback period.
13:34 That's with that high grade RPM of 360,000 ounces of production coming in that first
13:40 year and then going steady state for the remainder of the mine life at 130,000 ounces, 650 million
13:45 dollar NPV, 53% internal rate of return.
13:50 Capital CapEx, less than 400 million, producing almost 2.3 million ounces over that 17 years.
13:57 So that's the foundation, a base to build on as we move forward now in our PFS, Prefeasibility
14:02 Study, those numbers are set to improve.
14:05 But that's a good starting point for us, for sure.
14:08 And here's the growth opportunity over time.
14:12 It's been a brutal market, haven't received much love for that scoping study.
14:15 So perhaps you think that'd be baked in here over time.
14:18 But nevertheless, we keep pushing forward on two paths, really.
14:22 Our path to production with RPM Corbel and also, of course, the exciting exploration
14:28 with further discoveries due to come online, which we reported recently some of those in
14:32 the news in the last few weeks.
14:34 So what's our plan in the next 12 to 18 months?
14:37 Continue drilling, move more of these resources in the measure indicated, grow that resource
14:42 moving into PFS with further studies and test work, and of course, exploration discoveries.
14:47 Now at the end of the day, when you sit back and you look high level, big picture, what's
14:50 developing here?
14:51 I spent a lot of time in my career down in the Carlin trend with the likes of Newmont
14:54 and Barrick.
14:55 And really, certainly the geology is different.
14:58 But in terms of scale and potential resource endowment over the long term, this project
15:05 has the potential to be the Carlin of the North, for sure.
15:09 There's a lot of near, medium, and long term opportunity on this project.
15:13 And with that, thank you.
15:14 Big story, whirlwind tour.
15:17 And I think if people go to our website, this content and more, you'll find, dig a bit deeper,
15:22 you'll find we're onto something very special here.
15:24 So I'll leave it at that, Matt, for today.
15:27 Chris, we're well done.
15:28 I have to tell you, I love the visualization tool.
15:32 Really incredibly powerful to see the size and the scale and certainly some of the results.
15:36 These real size you guys are seeing will be really interesting to see the next 6 and 12
15:43 months, how things go for you guys.
15:45 We would certainly welcome you back to get an update next year on doing so.
15:49 That would be great.
15:50 It'd be my pleasure.
15:51 I'd love to wrap with one question.
15:53 And I recognize you hit on this throughout your presentation.
15:57 But just I'd like you to succinctly talk to our audience about the difference between
16:03 Nova Minerals and frankly, the competitors that are out in landscape.
16:08 Give us a 30 second soundbite about what folks should leave this webinar understanding about
16:12 Nova.
16:13 Yeah, I think we're severely undervalued.
16:16 I don't know if the reason for that is because we're an ASX listed company, also on the OTC.
16:20 But if you look at our direct peers, let's choose our neighbor there, which we pointed
16:24 on the presentation, US Gold Mining Inc.
16:27 As well as let's take Snowline Resources, for example, that's over there on the Yukon
16:32 side also on the intrusive related gold system, high profile recent project.
16:37 You look at their valuations compared to ours.
16:40 I mean, what do we have over?
16:41 Those are great projects, no doubt.
16:43 But over our competitors, we're much more advanced moving into PFS now.
16:48 You can see those spectacular drill results at RPM.
16:51 We need to repeat those.
16:52 But you can see the potential at RPM.
16:55 So that sets us apart.
16:56 Also, when you look at Nova Minerals as a company, this is our flagship, the Estelle
17:01 side.
17:02 But we also have strategic investments in lithium, as your previous guest, in Manitoba
17:07 with Snow Lake Resources, a company we built and spun off on the NASDAQ.
17:10 Still have a 37% stakeholding there.
17:12 And a rare earth company in Australia, ASRA.
17:14 And so those are some considerations to take into account when looking at the valuation
17:19 compared to our peers.
17:21 And then on the Alaskan front, I pointed out that we're all on state land.
17:26 Some projects in Alaska, you have to deal with federal land and native corporation lands,
17:30 both being on state land.
17:31 That lends itself to a very pleasant day-to-day working environment with the state organizations
17:37 to do our work.
17:38 And then when it comes to permitting, that should be much more streamlined as well.
17:41 Well, Christopher, I can't thank you enough for sharing not only your deep expertise and
17:46 your many years of experience, but also a unique and exclusive look at what's going
17:51 on at Nova.
17:52 So again, we welcome you back in a few months to get an update.
17:56 But until then, thanks so much and good luck.