Usha Resources, a North American mineral acquisition and exploration company, has officially announced plans to conduct an Induced Polarization (IP) survey at its Southern Arm polymetallic VMS property in the metal-rich northwest Abitibi subprovince.
According to certain reports, the company has entered into an option agreement to earn 100% of Southern Arm over 2 years from Abitibi Metals Corp.
Talk about the given agreement on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the fact that Usha has retained Geophysique TMC to deploy the IP survey over the Hollywood trend of metal anomalies within the Southern Arm claim block. This, in turn, will make it possible for the company to identify chargeability and resistivity anomalies associated with massive or disseminated sulphides down to a depth of 350+ m.
Next up, a closer look at the agreement would reveal how field crews will be deployed onsite from mid-November to begin the survey, with the results of this 3D survey set be interpreted alongside the results from the biogeochemical survey announced back in August 1, 2024. Furthermore, these results will be used to establish high priority targets for Usha’s planned maiden 3,000 meter drill program.
“We are excited to apply the experience of international geophysical experts at Geophysique TMC to our exploration program at the Southern Arm property” said Deepak Varshney, CEO of Usha Resources. “The lack of outcrop exposures and complex glacial history in the northwest Abitibi make exploration difficult, but we are confident that Usha is applying the optimal techniques to this ground that give us the best chance of turning historic indications into the Abitibi’s next major discovery.”
More on the location would reveal how northwest Abitibi subprovince has historically associated mineral occurrences with felsic volcanic rocks and regional-scale synvolcanic faults. Beyond that, synvolcanic Bapst Fault also transects the Southern Arm property.
Apart from that, the sparse historic drill logs, across this particular area, have consistently shown to record felsic volcanic stratigraphy, alteration assemblages and widespread metal anomalies that, on their part, are indicative for polymetallic VMS formation.
Beyond that, located in the Abitibi greenstone belt, Southern Arm hosts an approximately 7.3-kilometre conductive copper-gold trend. This it does next to the regional-scale Bapst fault. Markedly enough, bedrock geology of the Property also packs together volcanic rocks of the Brouillan-Fenelon group, which hosts the nearby Selbaie mine (approximately 15 kilometres (km) southwest), as well as the Abitibi’s B26 deposit.
Expanding upon both, Selbaie mine’s latest production results translate to 53 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.96 per cent copper (Cu), 1.9 per cent zinc (Zn), 0.58 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au), 40.7 g/t silver (Ag). As for Abitibi’s B26 deposit, it effectively hosts an indicated resource of 6.97 at 2.94 per cent copper equivalent (CuEq; 1.32 per cent Cu, 1.80 per cent Zn, 0.60 g/t Au and 43 g/t Ag).
Founded in 2018, Usha Resources’ rise up the ranks stems from the work it has done to develop quality critical metal properties that are drill-ready with high-upside and expansion potential. The company’s portfolio of strategic properties, post its latest acquisition, includes Southern Arm, a copper-gold VMS project, Jackpot Lake, a lithium brine project in Nevada and White Willow, and a lithium pegmatite project in Ontario which happens to be the flagship among its growing assortment of hard-rock lithium assets.
