Nova wins $43.4M from Pentagon to build antimony hub

Nova Minerals’ (Nasdaq, ASX: NVA) shares soared to a historic high after it was awarded US$43.4 million by the United States’ Department of War (DoW) to support the production of antimony trisulfide at its Estelle project in Alaska.

The DoW funding, provided under the Defense Production Act Title III, will go towards Nova’s U.S.-based subsidiary Alaska Range Resources, which holds an 85% interest in the Estelle project.

“This award will fund the initial phase of the company’s strategy to establish a full spectrum state of the art antimony mining and refining hub based in Alaska to supply refined antimony products to the U.S. industrial base and beyond,” Nova’s CEO Christopher Gerteisen said in a release on Wednesday. The partnership will also support America’s buildout of a “fully domestic, redundant supply chain” for munitions and other defence products, he added.

Government interest

The funding marks further efforts by the Trump administration to spur production of metals deemed critical for defense or strategic purposes and comes on the same day the Department of Energy took a 5% stake in Lithium Americas (TSX, NYSE: LAC) and its Thacker Pass project in Nevada, which hosts one of the largest lithium deposits in North America. One week ago, the Pentagon awarded a $245 million sole-source contract with the United States Antimony Corporation (NYSE: UAMY) to buy antimony ingots for defence applications. That company operates the only two smelters in North America with long-standing capacity to process the metal.

Nova shares jumped to $20.87 apiece on Wednesday morning when the Nasdaq opened, before easing to $18.72 by mid-day. The company has a market capitalization of $131.2 million. 

Located 150 km northwest of Anchorage, Estelle is a district-scale project that spans a 35-km mineralized corridor and hosts 20 identified gold prospects, including four large, near-surface gold deposits. Together, these deposits hold nearly 10 million oz. in resources, calculated under JORC standards, making it one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold assets.

The property covers 514 sq. km of Alaska public land and lies within the Tintina gold belt, a province with more than 220 million oz. of documented gold endowment and some of the world’s largest gold mines and discoveries, such as Kinross’ Fort Knox gold mine.

Alaska antimony

The Tintina belt is also known to host significant Antimony deposits and was once a supply of the mineral to the North American market, in particular during wartimes. Government data shows that antimony ores from at least 25 deposits in the state were shipped to markets between 1905 and 1986, and the mineral is found to be associated with some of Alaska’s major gold deposits.

The grey-coloured metal is currently listed by the U.S. government as critical to national and economic security, due to its high use and importance in defence and high-tech applications. However, the U.S. has not produced antimony commercially since 2016, making domestic supply a priority in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this year to bolster American production of critical minerals.

Possible resource

Recently, Nova discovered antimony along with the gold in surface sampling on numerous prospects across the Estelle mineral claims, elevating the project’s status as a critical mineral play that aligns with the Trump administration’s strategy.

While Nova hasn’t yet established an antimony estimate for the project, it said it has plans to publish one some time this year.

The DoW award, the company says, will enable its ARR unit to accelerate development of a fully integrated U.S. supply chain to extract, concentrate and refine stibnite to produce military-grade antimony trisulfide to assist in meeting the nation’s defence industrial base demands.