Buxton charges into Graphite Bull drill campaign

Buxton Resources has wheeled in a reverse-circulation (RC) drill rig at its Graphite Bull play in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, eager to unveil the full extent of thick graphitic mineralisation intersected from a recent diamond program.

Almost 85m of visible graphitic mineralisation was pulled up from a diamond drillhole that includes a 50m high-grade core some 240m outside of the known mineralised envelope. The company previously reported that the quality of the mineralisation appears highly promising, with 22.56m of its newly-defined “Main Zone” visually estimated to contain grades exceeding 10 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC).

That correlates well with previous significant intersections from an earlier hole that returned 20m at 18.3 per cent TGC from 170m downhole. The new round of RC drilling is aimed at expanding the current inferred resource of 4 million tonnes at 16.2 per cent TGC, with an updated resource estimate slated for the last quarter of this year.

Encouragingly, Buxton has squared away several strategic deals, confirming that its drilling and earthworks contractors will partly fund the 5500m program.

Tier-one drilling provider Topdrill has secured the contract to plug 5000m into Graphite Bull and an additional 500m into several intriguing electromagnetic conductors prospective for nickel, copper and platinum group elements (PGE) at the company’s nearby Narryer project.

Spanning almost 20 years of providing drilling services to the resources sector in Australia, Topdrill has a fleet of some 25 drill rigs tasked with exploring and developing a myriad of deposit types throughout the country. In short – this mob has been around the traps long enough to know when to take a punt on a good thing.

Under the deal, Buxton will issue fully-paid shares to TopDrill up to a maximum value of $1 million to cover half of the drilling bill.

Similarly, earthworks contractor Zanil has agreed to a payment of $30,888 worth of shares in lieu of cash. The issue price will be determined by the five-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) immediately preceding each invoice.

Buxton Resources chief executive officer Marty Moloney said: “These equity for services arrangements promote a strong alignment of interests and are a vote of confidence from our service providers on the ground who can see first-hand the strong growth potential of Buxton’s 100% owned Graphite Bull project.”

Following an extensive heritage survey, the company has cleared the way to expand Graphite Bull’s known resource and test a clutch of intriguing electromagnetic anomalies, which are potential targets for open pit mineable graphite mineralisation outside of the existing resource.

The project lies 200km east of Carnarvon in the Gascoyne and while it has been lying somewhat dormant in the company’s portfolio for the better part of a decade, China’s dominance in the graphite sector – producing as much as 94 per cent of global graphite supply – has shone a spotlight on sourcing alternate supplies amid mounting geopolitical tension between the Asian continent and the United States.

Raising capital and negotiating deals in a giddy market with depressed commodity prices is a fine art … one Buxton appears to be mastering as it looks to keep the exploration momentum going over its pipeline of battery metals projects.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au