Buxton Resources is dialling in on geophysical anomalies it believes may be iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) ore deposits as it prepares for fieldwork at its 100 per cent-owned Centurion project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region.
Neighbouring tenements have thrown up significant rare earths enrichment, including niobium, at WA1 Resources’ Luni and Pachpadra carbonatite discoveries – and they have no shortage of head-turning assays.
WA1’s turf is about 130km south-west of Buxton’s ground and assays from Lumi reported last month went as high as 3m at 4 per cent niobium pentoxide from 28m and 73m at 0.8 per cent niobium pentoxide from 57m to the end of the hole, including a 7m high-grade chunk going 3.6 per cent. One recent drillhole at Luni also threw up a rare earths hit of 7m at 10 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 58m.
Those results support previous assays from Luni that peaked at 34m at 4.8 per cent niobium pentoxide and 72.2m at 1.5 per cent niobium pentoxide including 6.4m at 2.9 per cent and 11.6m at 2.5 per cent.
WA1 says it is preparing to release a maiden mineral resource estimate for its ground this quarter.
Previous work in the Centurion area has been largely focussed on gold and copper exploration through airborne geophysical methods, with limited ground sampling completed. The airborne methods have resulted in the imaging of a circular magnetic anomaly upon which the Centurion prospect area is based.
Buxton says the anomaly remains untested by the drill bit and management has indicated it is itching to examine its potential for hosting IOCG mineralisation similar to the giant Olympic Dam deposit in South Australia. Olympic Dam boasts about 2.95 billion tonnes of ore grading 1.2 per cent copper, 0.04 per cent uranium, 0.5 grams per tonne gold and 6g/t silver.
The company says it has all of the necessary heritage agreements in place to re-establish its access to Centurion, including mining entry permits from the Aboriginal Lands Trust. Management says the program of work for the exploration push at Centurion is currently sitting with the regulator awaiting approval.
Buoyed by a recent $220,000 Exploration Incentive Scheme grant from the WA Government, Buxton is working to prove up the prospectivity of Centurion, which sits right near the border of WA and the Northern Territory about 360km south of Halls Creek.
Yesterday, Buxton revealed plans to drill-test three new target areas unveiled by high-tech ground moving-loop electromagnetic (MLEM) surveys at its Ranger and Oculus prospects in an upcoming campaign at its Narryer project in WA’s Gascoyne region.
The company says the surveys indicate the potential for iron-bearing copper-nickel or graphite mineralisation in two targets that span about 750m in strike length, starting at 100m below surface and extending 1000m down-plunge.
With plans for fieldwork and drilling about to be realised, the market is awaiting a solid few months of news flow out of Buxton as assays come to hand.
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By Andrew Duffy
