Buxton Resources is employing a high-tech magnetic survey in a bid to define potential targets for the company’s maiden drill program at its recently-acquired Matrix manganese play in Arizona’s Mohave county.
Management says the survey will enable refinement of its structural model before drilling, with the detailed aerial photography taken at altitude to assist in providing a basis for the project’s environmental status.
The survey will be flown by a drone at 30m flight lines above the 12-square-kilometre ground that sits on the interpreted western extension of RecycLiCo Battery Materials’ Artillery Peak mine that contains one of the biggest manganese resources in the United States.
The mine’s 277 million-tonne manganese resource has an impressive 2.8 per cent grade for a total of 7.8 million tonnes of manganese. Its deposit is unique as it is hosted by sandstone, with high porosity and low gangue acid consumption.
Those types of deposits have led to excellent leaching qualities in comparison to other manganese operations. Buxton’s magnetic survey is expected to take two weeks to complete.
The Matrix project is surrounded by known mineralisation on three sides, including Artillery Peak and its land area consists of 154 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claims. Management says mapping conducted in the area by the Arizona Geological Survey indicates the potential for known mineralisation to extend into the Matrix project ground.
Buxton Resources chief executive officer Martin Moloney said: “This survey is the first step towards targeting our maiden drill program at the Matrix Project and I'm pleased that it has commenced so soon after closing the acquisition."
The company agreed to buy the Matrix project from private company Solution Metals on an earn-in basis and it will spend $1 million during a maximum two-year period to earn 100 per cent ownership. It issued $150,000 worth of its shares to Solution, in addition to a 1.5 per cent net smelter return royalty.
A second tranche of $100,000 in shares will be issued either at the two-year anniversary of the deal or on completing the earn-in requirements.
Buxton is targeting deposits of highly-soluble manganese amenable to in-situ recovery mining methods. Interestingly, manganese was first discovered in the region in about 1880.
The company also has another Arizona project on its books and it could be a ripper.
Its highly-promising Copper Wolf project recently kicked up a head-turning drill hit of 405.38m at 0.7 per cent copper equivalent from 608.38m including 105.77m at 0.86 per cent from 700.43m. The thick interval sits below a previously-reported 83.76m at 0.9 per cent copper-equivalent from 527.91m.
Management says recent coincident geochemical and magnetic anomalies at its project’s Wolverine prospect, in addition to rock chip samples returning 1.2 per cent copper and 383 parts per million molybdenum, also provide further cause for optimism.
Anomalous rock chip results from its Sun Devil and Aztec prospects within Copper Wolf returned up to 3.08 per cent copper, 156ppm molybdenum and 9.34ppm silver. Management says geochemical results indicate that upper levels of a porphyry system are exposed, with potentially buried copper targets at depth.
Mining giant IGO is earning into the project as part of a joint venture (JV) agreement with Buxton.
The latter also has its 100 per cent-owned Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, with a resource that consists of 4 million tonnes at 16.2 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC). It has a strike length of 460m and a depth to 220m.
Management is poised to launch an infill drilling program shortly at Graphite Bull along a potential 2.1km strike zone where drilling last year confirmed further high-grade graphite mineralisation.
With a plethora of projects targeting electric vehicle (EV) battery minerals, the future may be as bright for Buxton as is the morning sun in Arizona.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
