Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX) should recommence trading higher today after intersecting nickel and copper sulphides and graphite at Zanthus in Western Australia's Fraser Range.
This maiden drill program identified abundant, definitively magmatic sulphide blebs of intergrown pyrrhotite, crystalline pentlandite and some chalcopyrite (Fe+Cu) within ultramafic rock.
No “ore grade” mineralisation has been intersected, however the presence of magmatic nickel and copper sulphides support the high prospectivity of the host ultramafic unit for nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation.
Widespread ultramafic and associated gabbro units with substantial content of pyrrhotite, some zones over 5%, and minor nickel sulphide minerals were intersected in a total of six drill holes.
Results included 12 metres of ultramafic rock with abundant magmatic blebs of composite pyrrhotite, pentlandite and chalcopyrite, then 14 metres of gabbro, from 92 metres.
This interval exhibited around 0.5% pyrrhotite, and was followed by a further 7 metres of gabbro with 2% pyrrhotite.
Assays of 4 metres at 1,219ppm nickel from 96 metres, and 12 metres at 1,244 ppm nickel from 76 metres were recorded in ultramafics.
A further 12 metres of ultramafic rock with minor pyrrhotite and traces of nickel sulphide minerals pentlandite, heazlewoodite, nickeline and gersdorffite with additional traces of chalcopyrite was identified from 76 metres.
This was followed by 15 metres of gabbro with 0.2% pyrrhotite 12m @ 1,244 ppm Ni (from 76m) in ultramafic
Interestingly, a graphite intersect of 8 metres at 22.7% TGC from 99 metres was also returned, which included 3 metres at 34.6% TGC.
This was coarse flake graphite within paragneisses, and another interval showed 7 metres at 6.5% TGC from 95 metres.
Preliminary petrography shows very coarse graphite, in blocky crystals, in some cases over 1mm long and 250 microns wide.
Average flake length is 400 microns, with widths of 100-200 microns, meaning the flakes are cleaner and blockier than most occurrences.
Buxton is undertaking a technical assessment of the flake graphite occurrences along with the nickel copper to assist in planning follow up exploration programs.
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