Nova Minerals (ASX: NVA) has reached a significant milestone in its drive to build a fully secure, vertically integrated antimony supply chain in Alaska, with key processing and refining equipment now shipped to its Port MacKenzie plant site.

Close to 454 tonnes of crushing, ore sorting, milling, flotation, and refining equipment departed Seattle on 26 August 2026 aboard a barge bound for the company's processing site at Port MacKenzie, Alaska. The shipment — more than 40 containers plus multiple oversized loads — is expected to arrive by early September, capping six months of detailed planning, procurement, and logistics coordination.

The equipment came from a recently decommissioned modern processing facility in North America, together with other processing equipment sourced from across the continent. After consolidation in Seattle, it is now being transported by sea to Port MacKenzie.

CEO Christopher Gerteisen said that acquiring and repurposing modern processing and milling equipment, rather than designing and fabricating a new facility from scratch, will deliver meaningful cost savings and significantly accelerate the path to construction and initial antimony production.

"The shipment of this equipment marks an important milestone as Nova advances from exploration and development towards antimony production at Estelle," Mr Gerteisen said.

"A key part of our strategy has been to acquire existing, modern processing equipment and mobilise it to Alaska, rather than build new equipment from scratch. That decision allowed us to move faster and more cost-effectively as we construct our processing plant at Port MacKenzie and work toward first antimony production in 2027.

"Antimony is a critical mineral essential to our national and economic security, with applications in defence, energy storage, and electronics. We are proud to be advancing a domestic supply chain that will help strengthen US critical minerals security."

Antimony is designated a critical mineral by the US Geological Survey and has in recent years drawn heightened policy attention because global mine production and refining capacity are heavily concentrated in China, which has imposed export controls on the metal. That supply concentration underpins US government efforts — including the funding supporting Nova's project — to establish domestic sources of antimony, which is used in ammunition, flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, and semiconductors.

The Port MacKenzie plant is designed to process stibnite-bearing material from Nova's Estelle project, initially into antimony trisulfide as part of the US Department of War (DoW) project. The facility is modular and easily scalable for future expansion into additional saleable refined antimony products, including antimony metal and trioxide.

Mr Gerteisen noted that Port MacKenzie offers a strategic location with access to deepwater port infrastructure, the proposed West Susitna Access Road, and the Port MacKenzie rail spur.

Once the DoW-funded project is complete, the Nova Minerals Port MacKenzie antimony refinery is expected to operate as a strategic US processing and toll-treatment facility producing refined antimony products for defence, industrial, and critical technology supply chains.

The development is fully funded by a US$43.4 million US Department of War award supporting the establishment of a domestic antimony supply chain, with production targeted for 2027. Milestones to watch ahead of that target include the equipment's arrival in early September, installation and commissioning of the processing plant, and progress on supporting infrastructure such as the proposed West Susitna Access Road.

NVA shares were up 3.23% at 64.0¢, giving the company a market capitalisation of $23.68 million.

Source: The Market Online Australia