Nova Minerals completes Estelle antimony plant engineering
Nova Minerals has finished engineering for its Alaska antimony pilot plant, moving the project into construction to target military-grade production.
Nova Minerals has completed the engineering and design phase for an antimony pilot processing plant at its Estelle project in Alaska. Construction activities are slated to begin this quarter, officially shifting the project into its execution phase. The operation is specifically targeting the production of antimony trisulfide.
Securing supply chains for military-grade minerals presents a clear strategic opportunity for the company. The Estelle facility is engineered to meet the strict antimony trisulfide specifications established by the US Department of War. By utilising a cleaner hydrometallurgical processing method, Nova intends to generate a filtered and dried final product ready for direct shipment or further downstream applications.
The logistics of the pilot operation rely on two distinct Alaskan locations. Bulk sample material will be extracted from the Stibium and Styx deposits within the broader Estelle project claims. This raw stibnite-bearing material will first move to the Whiskey Bravo site for front-end primary processing before being transported to Port MacKenzie for final concentration and refining.
Capital efficiency and timeline management appear to be central to the company's execution strategy. Nova has procured more than 40 containers of heavy equipment from a recently decommissioned North American processing facility. This approach bypasses traditional manufacturing queues to reduce procurement times, with crushers, a ball mill, ore sorters, screens, flotation cells, and conveyors either already delivered or currently in transit.
The facility utilises a modular design, a structure that allows for future expansion into additional refining circuits such as antimony trioxide and antimony metal production. This gives investors a clear view of potential future revenue streams beyond the initial pilot phase.
"We continue to make rapid progress on the antimony project and remain ahead of schedule, with another major milestone now completed," said Christopher Gerteisen, CEO of Nova Minerals. "The engineering and design plan has been developed based on extensive metallurgical test work and process flowsheet development. With this work complete, and procurement of key equipment now finalised, the project has entered the execution phase."
