The Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX: NVA) share price has jumped out of the starting blocks in early trade on Friday.
Nova shares are now exchanging hands at 13 cents apiece, a 13% gain from the open.
What's up with the Nova Minerals share price today?
The Nova Minerals share price is on the move after the company released a key announcement regarding its current infill drilling program.
The announcement expands on an update provided to investors on 1 September regarding the same infill program.
In Friday's release, Nova advised it had confirmed the "continuity of mineralisation" within the "Korbel main resource" as a part of its flagship Estelle Gold project.
Nova explained that infill drilling at the site is "designed to prove up inferred resource" and also "extend strike length of resource".
As a result of the drilling, Nova advised that the Korbel Feeder structure has "significant scale with high grade 'blow out' zones within the continuous mineralisation".
Nova advised that "aggressive infill and extension drilling" is still ongoing at Korbel. The company is focused on the goal of "substantially increasing the 4.7 Moz resource" at the site to a size and confidence to "expedite feasibility studies".
What did management say?
Speaking on the announcement, Nova CEO, Christopher Gerteisen said:
The infill diamond drilling at Korbel is showing strong support and confidence in the consistency and continuity of gold mineralisation in the Korbel's large mineralised system. The significant intercepts we continue to intersect within the high-grade feeder zone are very encouraging indeed. We have almost 30 holes in the lab awaiting assays and with drilling ongoing at a fierce pace more results will continue to stream in every week.
Touching on the company's growth vision, Gerteisen added:
Nova's multi-pronged drilling strategy is designed to advance the Korbel Main deposit towards being a bankable project by 2023. We are focusing on proving up the resource to Indicated status, which can then translate into reserve ounces for our planned starter operation. At the same time, we are pushing forward the resource development program at the RPM prospect and unlocking the wider Estelle Gold District, with additional prospects rapidly coming on line. We aim to grow the global resource inventory and advance the Korbel project in parallel.
Nova Minerals share price snapshot
The Nova Minerals share price has had a choppy year to date, posting a loss of 19% since January 1. Despite this, Nova shares have climbed 88% into the green over the last 12 months.
This has outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s return of about 25% over the past year.
At the time of writing Nova Minerals has a market capitalisation of $193 million.
