Nova Minerals Corp (NVA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello. Today, we have the great pleasure of welcoming back Christopher Gerteisen, the Executive Director and CEO of Nova Minerals, trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker, NVA. Chris, welcome back.

Great to be back with you. Thanks for having us.

Nova Minerals, advancing a major gold and critical minerals project in Alaska, let's start with a brief overview of the project for our viewers who may be learning about Nova for the very first time.

So we're a dual-commodity company here at the Estelle project, that's gold and antimony. We're in the right place at the right time with the right commodities, both at record high prices, and they just continue to move up rapidly here. So very well positioned in both projects we got production on the horizon, cash flow in our sites.

Right place, right time. I love that opener. Nova recently received a transformational $43.4 million nondilutive award from the U.S. Department of War to fund antimony production. Tell us more about the award and what it means for your production time line?

Well, there's no mine production in the U.S. And so the antimony is just negligible. It's such a critical strategic element, and we've been totally beholden to China and Russia for this -- for antimony. It's used in all the clean tech, green tech, high-tech and the big 1 is munitions. So all artillery shells, small and medium-caliber munitions require antimony. So the objective is the Department of War, looking for a company to take the bull by the horns, bring this production back to the U.S. We've been a first mover in that space. We're at the center of this effort. That's what the funding is for, and that's what we're looking to do to get antimony trisulfide production for the munitions as part of a Phase 1 by next year is our goal.

Wow. Yes. As you said, Chris, antimony, essential for defense, also batteries and electronics, tell us more about it, how large could this opportunity be for Nova?

Massive, right? So it's not -- so in Phase 1, which is what the grant was for and what we're working on now, we're talking about the specific antimony trisulfide product for the munitions for the Department of War. So that's really relatively in the whole suite of refined antimony products. That's actually just a niche product. So moving on from Phase 1, we'll be moving into Phase 2 and now we'll be producing antimony oxide, antimony metal, not just for the Department of War and munitions purposes but for the entire U.S. industrial base. So currently, it's like over $2 billion market just domestically, and it just continues to go up every year as additional high-tech applications come online. For instance, the latest, most antimony-based semiconductor substrates. They're all antimony-based. The 1 NVIDIA is using and all this. All of that battery, solar panels and so many more. These night vision goggles that the military uses. It really goes on and on. And that's what we're -- that's our objective. And that's what we're working to do to be at the center of that effort, for domestic as well as the export, of course, right, to our allies and things like that.

Now as exciting as antimony is, we could probably do the entire interview just on antimony. You also have gold, the Estelle project, for example, has a massive 5.2 million ounce resource and your previous drill program, well, it delivered some truly world-class results. Chris, I'm sure you're going to tell us about it, a 132-meter intercept at 10 grams of gold per ton. Explain that to us and tell us, what do these results say about the potential economics of the deposit?

That's right. So as I said, we are a dual-commodity company. That gives us -- the investor great confidence that we're not just -- all of our eggs aren't in 1 basket. So we're also a gold company and always have been a gold company. To Date, We've actually defined almost 10 million ounces globally. Now what you refer to as the in pit economic resources of 5.2 million ounces, we're working on a feasibility study now. We're looking to get out to the market next year at these gold prices already internally, the back of the envelope numbers are looking very just exceptional. The last scoping study we get at previous gold prices at about $1,850, we were seeing already almost approaching a $1 billion NPV. You can just imagine where it will be at a $4,000 gold price. So we're moving rapidly ahead with that. And best case scenario, we're looking to be in production, everything we're in control of by 2028. Now there's a few other things that have to -- some infrastructure items and some permitting you never know what those, we're not in total control of those. But for us, technically, we'll be ready for production out of the Estelle Gold project by 2028.

Now despite everything you've got, Chris, and all the success you've had so far, Nova is still trading at a deep discount to peers, about $40 per ounce of gold versus an industry average closer to $278. What milestones are catalysts? I know you've mentioned some. Let's talk more about the milestones and catalysts that you think could help close that valuation gap in the next, let's say, 12 to 18 months?

Well, of course, there's the antimony side. We received this $43 million award. You're going to start seeing news. We've already procured mining equipment and processing equipment, that will all be coming. I'm going to start construction on that Phase 1 plant next year. So news flow and things related to that to get into production with the antimony by mid to late next year. So that's huge, right, to be a serious producer, first-of-its-kind fully integrated here in America domestically. That's big. People should watch that. On the gold side, additional drilling results coming out with all the drilling we did this year on the gold side. Of course, we're doing the technical studies, metallurgical, optimizing the project, that will be coming out, that economic study on the gold in the first half of next year. So before we got the antimony grant, our company was running market cap of about $150 million to $200 million. Since the grant, now we're running between $250 million and $300 million. And you're right. I mean just on the gold side, if you look at our peers, many of these was a similar resources. We're 1 of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world in North America for sure. If you look at peers that are in that space, there's maybe 3 or 4 of them. They are running 4, 5, 6x our market cap just on the gold and in the antimony bonus that we have, which is very lucrative right now at $60,000 a ton, you add on that, and you can just see where this company should be going.

What about potential strategic partners, Chris? I want to hear what's going on there? Any discussions underway?

Always discussions. So to be clear, nothing on the table, but with a project like this, a district scale play, particularly with the gold, we've been called the Carlin trend of the North which is the premier gold mining district in North America there in Nevada, similar story taking shape here. Of course, the majors, the mid-tiers were on their radar. They're knocking on our door, some of them getting into our data room already, not many projects like this left in the world. And so to be clear, we're not here to flip the project, we're project builders, but everything's got to price. And certainly, as we move forward, I'm expecting that -- those approaches will be a bit more aggressive. These guys need to fill that reserve -- that depleting reserve gap they have from production, and this is the kind of project where you could be producing 0.5 million ounces, several hundred thousand ounces a year on the gold side, and that's what they need. So lots of opportunity there.

You know, you're following grows every day, Chris, Nova. Tell us about yourself and some of the players on your team for those who haven't met you yet?

Sure. Yes. We have quite a deep bench here that with all the expertise required to meet our objectives and put our project forward. That includes on the technical side, geologists, mining engineers and metallurgists at the Board level throughout the whole structure of the organization. In addition, capital markets all these things that are so important, corporate governance. Now myself, I'm an economic geologist with a mineral economics background as well. I've been doing this business for 30 years all around the world. I'm actually from Alaska. So I've come full circle. I'm back home now in the trenches day and night, work here, live here, pushing this project forward. And really what my specialty has become over the years and my niche and what I enjoy doing is taking resource stage projects and bringing them into production. And that's exactly what we're trying to do here at Estelle once again. I save the best for last, I think, and we're going to get it done.

Well, we've got 1 more question. What is the essential value proposition, Chris? Why should investors take an interest in Nova Minerals right now?

All investors want to see the company making money. We're right on the cusp on both the gold and antimony side. With the $43 million Department of War grant, we're looking to be in production with antimony by 2026 and with gold by 2028. That's our goal. That's our objective. And then it sky's the limit from there.

Chris, an exciting story, and you bring so much energy to it. Thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having us. See you next time.