{kanada_flagge}Finally, things are moving forward, Usha Resources (TSXV USHA / WKN A3DK8K) CEO Deepak Varshney will be thinking. The Canadian lithium explorer has had to take a break at its exciting Jackpot Lake project in Nevada, as it was waiting for heavier drilling equipment to advance to greater depths. This is because the company sees even greater potential for significant lithium brine deposits there. And now drilling has started again!
{kanada_flagge}Finally, things are moving forward, Usha Resources (TSXV USHA / WKN A3DK8K) CEO Deepak Varshney will be thinking. The Canadian lithium explorer has had to take a break at its exciting Jackpot Lake project in Nevada, as it was waiting for heavier drilling equipment to advance to greater depths. This is because the company sees even greater potential for significant lithium brine deposits there. And now drilling has started again!
The objective of the new drilling is to deepen and expand the knowledge gained from the first holes (drilled in 2022). At that time, it had already become apparent that Jackpot Lake has a similar geological environment to that in the Clayton Valley, also in Nevada, where the Silver Peak lithium mine of industry giant Albemarle is located. Silver Peak is the only producing lithium mine in North America to date.
As Usha now stated, drill hole JP23-02 on the Jackpot Lake lithum brine project is already underway. Immediately following the development of the hole and the first sampling of JP23-02, hole JP23-01 is to follow. The Company is thus duplicating the 2022 drilling, this time aiming to penetrate to a depth of approximately 2,000 feet each.
This is intended to significantly expand the already proven 99-foot and 273-foot zones of higher porosity, where Usha believes the best potential for brines exist. Depending on the results of the samples taken in the process, the Company then intends to proceed either with further drilling or with the completion of its initial resource estimate. Incidentally, with a completed resource estimate, Usha would become one of a very select group of companies in the USA. Initial preparatory work on a Canadian NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate has also commenced, according to the company.
Promising findings to date
Usha’s previous work on Jackpot Lake has already demonstrated that there is great potential for significant lithium brine deposits there. Soil samples collected at the project were enriched in lithium at levels equivalent to Clayton Valley. Enriched lithium is present in the advanced holes, with an average of 334 ppm and a maximum of 820 ppm Li in thirty samples collected from near surface soils (<500 ft) within JP22-02.
Thus, the results more than hold up to comparison with the 100 ppm from the Esmeralda formation. Esmeralda is one of the possible sources of lithium enrichment in the Clayton Valley brine, where Albemarle’s Silver Peak mine is located.
Great similarities with Clayton Valley (Albemarle).
And according to Usha, Jackpot Lake also hosts a similar geologic system to that of Clayton Valley. For example, significant evaporitic crystallization, indicative of a brine-forming environment, is present in wells advanced last year. Drill hole JP22-02, the company said, contained a 146-foot interval of massive to bedded evaporites with clay and sand interbeds and cross-cutting stratification.
The evaporites are located above a large zone of higher porosity sand and conglomerate, with at least 273 feet of potentially pumpable aquifer within JP22-02, into which fluids should drain from the overlying zones. The coarse-grained basal units are a major focus for expansion of Albemarle’s Silver Peak lithium brine mine and Pure Energy’s Clayton Valley project, where a large volume of brine with excellent grades has been identified.
In addition, as Usha points out, the stratigraphy of the site supports a NI 43-101 resource, with the same stratigraphy identified in holes JP22-02 and JP22-01, suggesting that it is found throughout the basin. Because the distance between the two holes is 2.75 kilometers! The discovery of these similarities, particularly in the basal conglomerates and evaporites, is an important finding that reconfirms that Dry Lake, where Jackpot Lake is located, represents a similar geologic setting to Clayton Valley.
“We are very excited to return to the Jackpot Lake project and resume drilling,” said Deepak Varshney, CEO of Usha Resources. “Work to date has demonstrated that Jackpot contains the right system for a major lithium discovery. By exploring to a depth of 2,000 feet, we hope to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the mineral potential within our project area and further improve the overall resource estimate and feasibility of the Jackpot Lake project.”
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