Nova Minerals ramps up exploration at Estelle Gold Project in prolific region of Alaska

Nova Minerals is a mining exploration and development company focused on advancing its Alaskan district-scale Estelle Project toward production.

US President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to secure domestic defense supply chains, limiting waivers that allow contractors to source critical materials from adversarial nations and requiring more comprehensive mapping of supply chains for national security procurements.

The order, signed on July 20, restricts circumstances under which the Secretary of Defense can issue waivers for critical materials from covered nations under 10 U.S.C. 4872, in some cases requiring contractors to submit mitigation plans to onshore their supply chains.

It also directs the Department of War to pursue regulatory action requiring more comprehensive mapping of critical supply chains, as designated by the Secretary of War, and encourages contractors to qualify new domestic and partner-nation sources for critical minerals, materials and components, while removing regulatory barriers in the qualification process.

The White House said the order is intended to preserve US military dominance amid renewed great power competition, arguing that supply chain resilience and domestic production have been historically under-prioritized despite longstanding prohibitions on sourcing sensitive materials from geopolitical adversaries.

Nova Minerals Corp (ASX:NVA, NYSE-A:NVA, FRA:QM30) has strengthened its board with the appointment of former JP Morgan metals and mining professional Joshua Girnun as the company advances its US-focused critical minerals strategy and Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals Project in Alaska.

Girnun’s appointment, effective July 1, 2026, comes as Nova moves through what it describes as a pivotal execution phase following its redomiciliation from Australia to the United States. The company said the move was designed to better align its corporate structure with its predominantly US asset base, broaden access to American government and institutional capital and support potential index inclusion. 

Nova Minerals Corp (ASX:NVA, NYSE-A:NVA) high-grade gold concentrate of up to 26.7 g/t from flotation test work on low-grade ore from the Korbel deposit at its Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals Project in Alaska.

During the program, the company highlighted gold recoveries consistently above 95% at Korbel.

Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA, NASDAQ:NVA) CEO Christopher Gerteisen joins Proactive’s Tylah Tully to discuss how the company is advancing the RPM deposit at the Estelle Gold Project in Alaska.

Results from the latest drill program targeting near-surface mineralisation have revealed high-grade intersections with gold encountered in all holes, including 43 metres at 4.4 g/t from just 2 metres below the surface. Within this interval was a higher grade section of 39.2 g/t gold over 2 metres.

Additional results from 13 remaining drill holes are still awaited with all the results expected to support a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the RPM starter mine.