Buxton Resources (ASX: BUX) is setting out on the trail of encouraging results gleaned last year from its Dogleg nickel-copper-cobalt project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region as the company kicks off its new field season with up to eight diamond drillholes.
Management is also planning to run extensive moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) surveys to detect conductivity anomalies that could be related to nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralisation away from previous drilling.
The Dogleg drilling program is designed to further test the MLEM conductor that corresponds with the thick, high-grade massive nickel-copper-cobalt sulphides intersected in the company’s maiden diamond hole put into the prospect last year. That hole, one of two drilled at Dogleg last year, nailed 13.24m at 4.35 per cent nickel, 0.34 per cent copper and 0.15 per cent cobalt from 177.34m including 5.86m going 7.47 per cent nickel, 0.31 per cent copper and 0.25 per cent cobalt from 179.08m.
The result triggered a $500,000 payment to Buxton from joint venture (JV) partner IGO, adding to the $2.35 million the company had received at the end of the preceding quarter.
The second hole at Dogleg intersected semi-massive sulphides in a 2.89m slice going 4.17 per cent nickel, 0.83 per cent copper and 0.14 per cent cobalt from 233.63m. A downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) survey completed on the second hole shows a strong response and provides additional focus outside the original MLEM conductor for the latest follow-up drilling this year.
The new drilling campaign is aiming to intersect the strike extensions of the Dogleg intrusion as interpreted in the original MLEM survey and which is believed to host the nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralisation. Understanding if the interpreted conductor/intrusion is open along strike is key to validating it and confirming its interpretation as being the host to mineralisation and will also help in the planning of future drilling at depth and along strike.
In addition to the Dogleg diamond drill program, IGO expects to run more systematic MLEM surveys across the greater Quick Shears project area sometime in the next fortnight in a bid to generate further targets for diamond drill testing. It hopes to detect conductivity anomalies that could be related to nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralisation away from previous drilling to gain distance away from existing downhole intercepts.
DHEM surveys undertaken on last year’s drillholes gave strong in-hole responses that swamp any possible reception of geologically-significant EM signals from locations more distant from the axes of the drillholes. That signal swamping limits the effectiveness of DHEM’s ability to identify important conductors further away from the holes – both along strike and down-dip.
With the drill rig on site at Dogleg and IGO committed to paying all of the exploration costs for the campaign, Buxton is strapped in and ready for an intriguing ride to see if the new holes can match last year’s hype.
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