Nova Boosts Gold Output Potential With 4.3x Ore Upgrade and Up to 68.7% Leach Recovery

Nova Minerals Limited ("Nova" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:NVA) (ASX: NVA) (FRA: QM3) ) is pleased to announce results from the ongoing RPM gold feasibility metallurgical test work program, which is showing exceptional recoveries in our opinion, with potential further opportunities to optimize for even higher recoveries.

Highlights

• RPM conceptual flowsheet outlines clear path to high gold recoveries (Figure 6).
• High-grade ore over 2 g/t Au fed directly into the carbon in pulp (CIP)/carbon in leach (CIL) circuit to optimize gold recovery.
• Ore below 2 g/t Au will be processed through the ore sorter, where a 1,000 kg bulk test with Steinert Mining upgraded 1.32 g/t Au material to 5.72 g/t Au — an increase of 4.33 times in a single pass (Figures 1, 2 and 3).
• Lower-grade ore rejected by the sorter will undergo heap leaching, with column tests showing potential gold recoveries as high as 68.7% (Figure 4 and 5 and Table 1).
• Advanced sorting technology expect to increase the volume of high-grade feed to processing circuits, optimize resources and maximize orebody value.
• Ongoing CIP/CIL test work for the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) aims to advance this part of the flowsheet.
• High pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) crushing test work is in progress to further optimize the flowsheet and provide power cost efficiencies in the PFS.
  
   

Nova CEO, Mr Christopher Gerteisen commented: "We are extremely pleased with the results emerging from our ongoing metallurgical test work program at the RPM Deposit, which we believe continues to demonstrate the exceptional quality and scalability of the Estelle Project.

The ability to extract up to 68.7% gold recovery from lower-grade material through heap leaching, combined with a 4.33 times upgrade using ore sorting technology, is a significant technical breakthrough, in our opinion. These results underscore the economic potential through innovative processing methods as we continue to refine our development pathway.

This multi-pronged flowsheet approach — incorporating ore sorting, heap leaching, and CIP/CIL processing has the potential to be a best-in-class strategy for maximum gold recovery, efficient capital deployment, and lower processing costs. We believe RPM has the hallmarks of a low-cost, high-margin gold producer.

With CIP/CIL test work well underway and further optimization on ore sorting and HPGR crushing still to come, we believe the upside could be significant. These preliminary results strengthen our belief that Estelle is a potential world-class, long-life gold district capable of delivering sustained value to shareholders.

Nova remains focused on delivering the next major North American gold mine, and these latest results from RPM bring us another step closer to achieving that vision."