Ann: Nova to Unlock the Value of its Lithium Projects, page-67

The company strategy is to developing Thompson Bros with just enough cash spend to get the core Thompson Bros deposit ready for proceeding to Feasibility Studies, Development and then cashflow.

They’ll explore the other parts of their landholding once the company is generating cashflow. i.e. then self-sustaining.



Looking at information they have published I think they are aiming for the initial deposit to be 10mt+. From specific targets they published I think they’ll arrive at a deposit around 11mt. If they define 50% of this as measured and indicated it’s a good basis for Preliminary Economic Analysis / Feasibility Studies.



There are Canadian peers with the same strategy but a smaller and lower-grade initial resource.

This approach minimises capex. From a mine funding perspective that reduces risk since it opens the project to a larger pool of financiers. Low risk Canadian location will also be looked at favourably by financiers.

As for Estelle - Millrock Resources are a leading project generator. They were in a JV with Teck Resources ( MCAP CAD $9.3B ) who was funding the exploration. Teck were bleeding cash 2-3 years ago and they slashed exploration budgets across all their regions and let projects go:

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/an...4155973/page-22?post_id=33638770#.W2jOOqR_WaM

Estelle is a quality project due to historic drilling there. 740m of mineralisation and it’s been confirmed that there are broad intercepts. Hence Nova’s 1.1Moz to 2.3Moz exploration target. One area has an intercept in the 300m to 400m range at 0.4g/t.



The deep / broad mineralisation allows for bulk mining techniques. North American miners are getting very, very good at it and have great economics.

Will also add that Estelle is a Copper-Gold project and I believe there will also be silver in the deposit, if it is similar to nearby Whistler. The additional mineralisation helps improve revenues.

The oxide prospect is just one of many in the district-scale Estelle asset. Some which have also had good results from historic drilling by Millrock.