Nova Minerals says state approved its antimony mine and Port MacKenzie refinery plans

Nova Minerals told federal securities regulators Tuesday that the state has given final approval to its plan to mine antimony ore about 80 miles southwest of Trapper Creek and refine it at Port MacKenzie.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has not posted the signed decision.

Nova's subsidiary, Alaska Range Resources of Palmer, would dig stibnite, the ore antimony comes from, at its Estelle project, sort it there and refine it at Port MacKenzie, according to Nova's release. The company says the approvals finish its permitting about three months after it applied and allow construction and operation for "an initial three-year term." It's aiming to start production in 2027.

The drafts DNR put out for comment in September ran from 2026 to 2031. They set a reclamation bond, money set aside to put the ground back, at about $6.6 million, and the reclamation draft barred operations until the bond is posted. Whether those terms changed won't be clear until the signed decision is public.

DNR's public notice also described the work in narrower terms than Nova does: "a bulk sampling program and small-scale refining pilot plant to test and determine the feasibility of producing antimony concentrate and refined antimony trisulfide."

"Securing our final permits is a major milestone for Nova, moving our Alaska antimony project from development planning toward construction and targeted production in 2027," Chief Executive Christopher Gerteisen said in the release.

Nova says its $43.4 million Defense Production Act award from the U.S. Department of War fully funds this first phase and that its major equipment is already at the project sites. Nova's annual report, filed last month, said its existing resources won't fund a year of its planned operations.

The release says Nova has "all required permits." It doesn't mention the state air permit for the ore crusher at Port MacKenzie, which the Department of Environmental Conservation proposed in September and took comment on through Oct. 14. Processing equipment came ashore at the port in early September, while that permit was still pending, and the subsidiary's own plans scheduled construction to start in June, months before the state opened comment.

Under the drafts, anyone eligible who is affected by the decision has 20 calendar days after it's issued to appeal to the DNR commissioner.