Buxton targets Madman conductor as drill rig readies
Buxton Resources has zeroed in on a large, untested conductor at its Madman copper-gold project in Western Australia and secured a rig to drill the high-priority target from late September. Downhole electromagnetic surveying of the two holes completed in the maiden Madman campaign has now been wrapped up, with the combined datasets putting the off-hole conductor around 250m north-northeast of MD003DD.
The alternative modelling solutions range from about 400m by 400m to 1000m by 1000m, with moderate modelled conductance of roughly 400-1000 Siemens. The target has not yet been drilled and remains Buxton’s highest-priority follow-up at Madman. McKay Drilling has confirmed rig availability from late September.
Buxton’s first survey from MD002DD picked up a conductive response around 350m north of that hole. MD003DD was subsequently surveyed from two separate surface transmitter loop positions, confirming the same response and allowing its location and geometry to be more tightly constrained. The resulting target remains outside both existing drill holes and is the same geophysical feature identified from the earlier MD002DD survey, rather than a new conductor.
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The planned follow-up will be drilled at -70 degrees towards 015 degrees, with the cross-section modelling showing it is expected to intersect the plate solutions at around 600-700m down-hole. EM plate solutions are non-unique, meaning the different plates are alternative models for the same measured response rather than separate conductive bodies, and there is no basis yet to infer the presence, width or grade of sulphide mineralisation.
The holes already drilled provide some geological context for the conductor. Both MD002DD and MD003DD punched through the Officer Basin cover and into crystalline basement, encountering quartz-carbonate veining, brecciation and sulphides. Magnetite-bearing gneiss was also intersected towards the bottom of both holes. Previously reported work from MD002DD identified gold associated with pyrrhotite within a fault zone. Pyrrhotite is highly conductive, making the source of the nearby off-hole EM response an obvious target for follow-up drilling.
Completing downhole electromagnetic surveying in both MD002DD and MD003DD has now constrained the off-hole conductor at Madman far more tightly – a large body a few hundred metres north-northeast of the nearest hole MD003DD in a completely untested position, according to managing director Marty Moloney. With McKay Drilling confirming rig availability, the company expects to be back on the ground later this month to test this high-priority target.
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October brings two shots on goal
That sets up October as an important month for Madman. Firstly, assays from MD003DD are now anticipated during the month. Those results will provide Buxton with its first laboratory data from the second hole of the maiden program, while the follow-up hole is designed specifically to test the DHEM conductor.
Secondly, assuming mobilisation and drilling run to schedule, the follow-up diamond hole itself is expected to be completed during October. It gives Buxton a quick progression from reconnaissance drilling to a targeted test of the off-hole conductor. Ground gravity and ground EM surveys are also planned to search beyond the roughly 350m detection window around the existing drill holes, with heritage work program notices lodged.
Madman also comes with an interesting piece of geological real estate. The project is around 375km northeast of Wiluna and sits beneath extensive cover near the western margin of WA’s Paterson Orogen, close to the major Marloo Fault and its connection with the Vines Fault. The Paterson is best known to investors for major copper-gold systems including Telfer and the more recently discovered Havieron.
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That regional success does not make Madman another Havieron – and Buxton stresses that no mineral resource or mineralisation of economic tenor has yet been defined at the project. Madman sits beneath extensive cover, making geophysics, structural interpretation and drilling central to Buxton’s search for the source of the anomaly. Magnetic targeting led to the first holes, drilling established the basement geology and sulphides, DHEM identified the off-hole response, and the next hole is designed specifically to test it.
Preparations are now under way for drilling to resume, with McKay Drilling scheduled to mobilise from late September. Assuming no material delays, the 800m hole is expected to be completed during October. MD003DD assays are also expected in October, while Buxton progresses heritage approvals for broader ground gravity and EM programs.
Buxton’s next job is to put a drill hole through Madman’s newly refined conductor and find out what’s causing it.
