WA government backs Buxton drilling as it hunts Havieron-style gold find at Madman

Buxton Resources will get up to $180,000 of government co-funding to support its chase for a multi-million ounce gold find at the Madman prospect in WA.

Drilling is inching ever closer at Buxton Resources’ Havieron-style Madman prospect. Pic: Getty Images

Special Report: An explorer searching for the next Havieron in the WA outback is on the cusp of commissioning its maiden drilling program in its bid to make the next multi-million ounce greenfield gold discovery.

• Buxton Resources has received up to $180,000 from WA’s Exploration Incentive Scheme to co-fund maiden drilling at its Madman prospect
• The project near Wiluna in WA bears the same magnetic features as the 8.4Moz Havieron discovery
• With a PoW and native title land access agreement in hand, Buxton is well-placed to begin drilling in the coming months

Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX) has announced the receipt of a $180,000 Exploration Incentive Scheme grant from WA’s Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, which will co-fund the initial drill drive.

The junior explorer has had its Program of Works approved and Native Title Land Access Agreement executed, two key steps ahead of the ground-truthing campaign intended to unlock the potential of the Madman prospect.

Located 375km northeast of Wiluna, magnetic imagery from the Geological Survey of WA has compared the Madman geophysical anomaly to Havieron, an 8.4Moz gold and copper orebody found by Newcrest and Greatland Gold.

The discovery proved to be the launching pad for London-listed Greatland to launch an audacious US$475 million bid for the nearby Telfer mine from gold giant Newmont, creating a $4 billion company.

One of the best gold discoveries in Australia in the past decade, Havieron was discovered under cover by targeting a similar magnetic feature to Madman, which is interpreted to lie under shallow cover close to the major crustal boundary, the Marloo Fault.

“Buxton is rapidly progressing toward the maiden drill program at our 100%-owned Madman Project, where we aim to discover a multimillion-ounce gold deposit,” Buxton CEO Marty Maloney said.

“The award of this EIS grant serves as an independent validation of our targeting by one of the world’s leading geoscience organisations. We’re now looking forward to completing clearances and getting the rig turning.” 

Madman has the same magnetic features as the 8.4Moz Havieron discovery. Pic: BUX

Key developments

The EIS grant, PoW and access agreement are just some of the key developments propelling Buxton forward as it zeroes in on the landmark drilling campaign.

Senior Buxton personnel have completed a reconnaissance visit to meet key local stakeholders at Glenayle and Carnegie, stations along the famous Canning Stock Route which have contributed to derisking logistics for the drill program.

A heritage survey request has also been submitted, following execution of the land access agreement with the Mungarlu Nurrarakatja Rirraunkaja Aboriginal Corporation, which acts for the Birriluburu native title group.

Buxton has also applied for an additional exploration licence which will expand the Madman project to 530km2, with a miscellaneous licence application for the purpose of installing a road also lodged.

However, the drill program can go ahead before these are granted.

Buxton is currently working with suitably qualified drilling and local earthworks contractors to refine the works program, with drilling to begin immediately after the heritage survey is complete and clearances are received.

Watch: Government grant fuels Madman’s gold hunt

The next major gold find

With gold prices upwards of US$3300/oz, the discovery of a major deposit would have significant ramifications for any explorer.

Buxton is confident it has the right rocks and address, with the alteration event in the Madman region thought to have coincided with the same events 650 million years ago which deposit 34.6Moz of known gold and 3.3Mt of copper at the Telfer, Winu, Havieron and other orebodies in the Paterson Province.

Over 50% of that gold endowment has been defined in the last decade, underlining the immature nature of the region and importance of exploring under cover.

Inversion modelling shows the 1km2 magnetic feature at Madman could sit as shallow as 115-175m below the surface.

And where there’s smoke there could be fire. The project sits just 45km east of a stratigraphic drillhole sunk by GSWA in 1995, which intersected z zone of quartz-pyrite veinlets from 397.1-417.55m downhole with anomalous gold up to 33ppb and associated tellurium of up to 823ppb.

That’s 800 times the average crustal abundance of the pathfinder mineral, with GSWA mapping also indicating the discovery of vein-hosted gold-barium mineralisation the nearby Quadrio Lake and Phenoclast Hill prospects.

Madman is one of two projects Buxton aims to start drilling in the coming two quarters alongside the IOCG style Centurion prospect, where BUX is seeking an Olympic Dam or Prominent Hill style deposit in WA’s West Arunta, with $3m recently raised from professional and sophisticated investors to fund the exploration push.

It’s also brought on some serious firepower at the board level, appointing former Greatland Gold CEO Gervaise Heddle as non-exec chair.

Heddle held the reins at Greatland when it acquired and discovered the Havieron deposit, establishing a joint venture with Newcrest that eventually led to its fateful Telfer mine buy. 

Watch: Green light to explore Royale’s copper and gold potential

This article was developed in collaboration with Buxton Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as WA government backs Buxton drilling as it hunts Havieron-style gold find at Madman