Christopher Gerteisen, CEO of Nova Minerals, says the company is entering a busy 2026 field season at its Estelle project in Alaska, with drilling focused on gold deposits and an antimony program backed by a $43 million Department of War grant. He frames antimony as the more urgent strategic story: Nova wants to start producing military-grade antimony trisulfide by late 2026 or early 2027, then scale into a broader Alaska-based refining hub.
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Christopher Gerteisen says Nova Minerals’ near-term focus is the 2026 field season at its Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals project in Alaska, where the company is running a multi-pronged program on both gold and antimony. On the gold side, the company is mobilizing three rigs, with the first drilling aimed at RPM, one of its gold deposits, to support an upcoming feasibility study through infill drilling and resource expansion. He presents the drilling as both feasibility work and continued exploration across a large, 200+ square mile property with more than 20 identified prospects. The antimony story is the more strategic part of the interview. Gerteisen says Nova has a Department of War grant worth $43 million to help bring domestic antimony production back to the U.S., and that the company aims to establish a first product of military-grade antimony trisulfide. …
Tactically, the setup is catalyst-driven: drilling starts now, a ZTEM survey is finishing, and management is trying to get early antimony processing moving this summer. The stock/event sensitivity likely hinges on whether field progress stays ahead of schedule and whether production milestones are kept alive into year-end.
Over the next few months, the market will likely focus on whether drilling improves the resource case and whether the antimony buildout visibly progresses from concept to installed equipment and commissioning. A slip in the feasibility cadence or the trisulfide timeline would weaken the base case.
Structurally, the story is about converting an Alaska exploration asset into a domestic critical-minerals platform with defense relevance. If executed, it would be less a single-mine thesis than a reshoring and industrial-processing thesis in antimony.
Nova is targeting initial production of military-grade antimony trisulfide under its Department of War grant.
The speaker explicitly says the grant objective is to produce antimony trisulfide for military use.
Three drill rigs are mobilizing, with the first rig focused on the RPM gold deposit.
This is a concrete operational update about the current drilling campaign.
Nova expects to produce antimony before it publishes a resource estimate for the antimony prospects.
He says surface stibnite veining allows extraction and processing ahead of a formal resource.
Can you give us an updated overview of Nova Minerals and the Estelle project?
Christopher Gerteisen says Nova Minerals is centered on its flagship Estelle Gold and Critical Minerals project in Alaska, about 100 miles west of Anchorage. He says the company is focused on gold and its first critical mineral, antimony, supported by a $43 million Department of War grant.
What work will happen during the 2026 field season?
He says the company is ramping up with three rigs mobilizing, with early drilling focused on the RPM gold deposit for infill and resource expansion. They will also drill the Stibium antimony prospect, along with exploration, sampling, mapping, geophysics, and other technical studies.
How does Alaska's daylight help your fieldwork schedule?
He says the summer field season is ideal because Alaska gives them nearly nonstop daylight for the next couple of months, especially around the June 20 solstice. That lets the team operate 24/7 and take full advantage of the weather and light.
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