Australian minerals company begins test drilling for antimony at west end of proposed West Susitna road

Australia-based Nova Minerals has begun exploration drilling on an antimony prospect at its Estelle gold project in the western Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

One drill rig is now working at the site, and a second rig is mobilized to begin work by the end of June, Nova said June 11 in a press releases. The borough is closely watching the road project because of its potential to increase economic activity and recreation in a large part of the borough that lacks road access.

Antimony is a critical mineral important to U.S. defense industries. The company said it is in discussions with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough over a land lease at the borough’s Port MacKenzie for a possible ore processing facility. Nova Minerals has applied for a U.S. Department of Defense grant to help finance the Antimony exploration.

The company’s Estelle project is at the end of the proposed West Susitna Access Project, a 99-mile industrial road that, if built, could connect the mineral exploration areas to the Mat-Su roads and Port MacKenzie. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority would lead development of the road, which would be paid for by mining companies using it.

A coal mining project and power plant are also being considered in the area.

The drilling program now underway would test a half-mile by quarter-mile area of gold and antimony mineralization discovered last year in surface sampling. The two metals are often found together. Exploration drilling is likely to increase the size of the prospect.

In an independent report published in last February RFC Ambrian, an Australian consulting firm, identified Estelle as one of only projects globally with the potential for near-term antimony production. China now controls much of the world’s supply of the metal.

Antimony is used in the electronics industry to make some semiconductor devices, such as infrared detectors and diodes. It is alloyed with lead or other metals to improve their hardness and strength.

In a related development Nova Minerals said it has also mobilized helicopters, pad building crews, drilling crews and geologists for its 2025 exploration season at Estelle that will include additional work on infill and expansion drilling at two identified gold deposits called RPM and Kobel.

The prospect is near the 4,000-foot Whiskey Bravo airstrip where Nova Minerals maintains a support camp for its exploration and has diesel generators on site. The airstrip itself is capable of handling DC-3 type aircraft. The base site includes a winterized 80-person camp and an on-site sample processing facility. The site is also within 15 miles of the proposed Donlin Mine gas pipeline route.

Nova said its U.S. Defense Department grant is intended to fast-track the project. If the grant is awarded Nova will expand the number of rigs wotking on the drilling program. Estelle is a 35-km long mineralized area with 20 gold prospects including several that are near the surface and could be mined by efficient open-pit methods.

The road proposed by AIDEA is at an advanced stage of planning. The authority has said that it intends to file for permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this year, which will require a federal Environmental Impact Statement.

Most of the road would be funded by bonds sold by the authority. Bond buyers would require the state corporation to identify revenue sources to pay the debt service, which means AIDEA would have to negotiate firm contracts with mining companies to use the road.

Those contracts can’t be agreed until there are mines producing enough ore with a trucking volume and tolls sufficiently large for AIDEA to make the bond payments.

Given the early stage of mineral exploration and the time it takes to permit and build a mine all of this is likely to take years. However, a defense department decision that antimony is critical to national security could lead to different kinds of federal support that could speed the development.

Meanwhile, a section of the road at its far eastern end and including a bridge across the Susitna River is being advanced by the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities with federal funds.

An Environmental Impact Statement for this segment is underway. Many people confuse this with the longer, 99-mile section that AIDEA is working on, but is still at the planning stage.