It's interesting to look at the RPM prospect as it is one of the areas that was historically drilled by Millrock. This was with just one hole drilled in 2012.
To emphasise the point ... there is gold at RPM and the lode appears deep and broad. The historic exploration at Estelle provides Nova with a unique an exciting opportunity to prove up multiple bulk-mineable prospects. Not just one set of deposits at Oxide Korbel but multiple large deposits, and by large I mean potential for > 1 Moz au in each deposit.At RPM are quite nice grades from just 8m below surface. This is not the narrow veins that we tend to get in Australia but strong indication of a near-surface, deep and wide lode of gold. Almost everything that is dug would be producing payable ounces so would mean a very low strip ratio and great economics.These were the results from that one historic drill hole at RPM by Millrock in 2012:
View attachment 1714915View attachment 1714912With some deep-dive research I was able to dig up some photos of the exploration drilling by Millrock and Teck Resources in 2012.
Drill rig and equipment being flown to site in 2012View attachment 1714942Drill rig in operation in 2013View attachment 1714936.... moving onto 2019 ... and below this is our geo Dale Schultz at the RPM prospect in 2019 ... following up that historic exploration. So following the Maiden JORC at Oxide Korbel prospect - I am expecting that there will be field work results reported for RPM. Surface mapping and details of grab, rock chip and importantly channel samples. They can also review airborne geophysics that were carried out by the Government ( and I think this probably led to Millrock initially targeting the area).
View attachment 1714948So why did Millrock and Teck Resources let Estelle go ...
- ... well Millrock are a small junior exploration company. In 2013 to 2015 they had too many claims ( including for the Alaska Range project now held by PolarX PXX.AX ). They couldn't afford to keep up with the claim payments for all the claims they had.
- They were in a JV with Teck Resources who were funding the exploration ... but Teck savagely cut their exploration budgets because they were bleeding cash. Article below was from 2015 but their exploration spend slashing started before this.
- The gold market had also been in freefall at the beginning of the decade. It was a slump. Hence capital wasn't flowing into gold exploration. Look at 2013 to 2015. Look at the chart below ...
If you don't know who Teck are ... they a a CAD $9.3B company ... this is them
https://www.teck.com/But even they have financial troubles.
https://business.financialpost.com/...-billion-because-of-the-commodity-price-crashTeck and Millrock problems partly caused by a savage gold bear market that started near the beginning of this decade.
Outcome of this ... well our CEO AK seized the opportunity to acquire a great asset with historic data in a gold bear market. The asset was then JVed into the existing listed company ( Quantum Resources and the name then changed to Nova Minerals ). Nova Minerals now carrying both the Lithium asset and the highly prospective Alaska JV.
So back to RPM and potential. The historic drill hole ... notice those broad intercepts. You don't stuff around with underground mining here chasing narrow veins ... this means a big open pit.
View attachment 1714915Results above are with a cut-off grade of 0.20 g/t. So extrapolating from these results ... what sort of scale would we need for a 1 Moz deposit???
Assumptions:
- Average grade 1.0 g/t
- Cut-off grade 0.2 g/t
- Average depth 150m ( but could go much deeper )
- Average width 150m
- Specific gravity 2.6 (based on nearby whistler deposit )
- Target resource size in the range 0.5 Moz to 1 Moz au.
Yellow and orange columns are calculated.
Grey columns are the assumptions and the target resource size.
So the results are .. a strike length of 300m to 600m will give us a resource of 0.5 Moz to 1.0 Moz ( seems achievable given the broad historic intercept.
View attachment 1715071So I think 1 Moz could easily just be the start but have just done the numbers above so you can get a perspective of the scale needed. The mineralisation could easily go much deeper.
(20min delay)