Buxton Resources Drills 800m Hole to Hit Undrilled EM Conductor at Madman

Drilling recommences at Madman as BUX zeroes in on EM conductor target

Buxton Resources (ASX: BUX) has commenced its second drilling program at the 100%-owned Madman Cu-Au Project in Western Australia, with McKay Drilling mobilised to site and hole MD004DD now collared.

MD004DD is collared at the existing MD003DD drill pad and planned at -70° toward 015° to a depth of 800 m, with a trajectory selected to intersect the modelled plate solutions between approximately 600 m and 700 m downhole. The target is an off-hole electromagnetic (EM) conductor modelled approximately 250 m north-northeast of MD003DD, a body that sits outside the intervals tested by either of the maiden holes and has not yet been drilled.

The program is expected to take three to four weeks to complete, with rig availability currently limited to a single hole. Two near-term catalysts follow: assays for MD003DD are anticipated in October 2026, and heritage work program notices have been lodged for ground gravity and ground EM surveys, plus further diamond drilling, currently under review by the Native Title Holders.

What the maiden program revealed — and why MD004DD follows

Buxton’s maiden program, undertaken in July and August 2026, comprised two diamond exploration holes, MD002DD and MD003DD, both drilled through the Officer Basin cover sequence into the underlying basement.

Assay and logging results for MD002DD, reported on 20 August 2026, described a zoned hydrothermal system: a potassic alteration zone carrying a bismuth-uranium-molybdenum-lead-copper pathfinder association, an overlying argillic zone, a distal lead-zinc-silver halo, and an anomalous gold-copper-bismuth interval in the lower part of the hole. Buxton’s interpretation is that MD002DD intersected the peripheral alteration envelope of a larger system rather than its centre.

A key structural observation from MD003DD added further weight to this interpretation. The Skates Hills Formation conglomerate is more than four times thicker in MD003DD than in MD002DD across only approximately 200 m of lateral separation, a relationship more readily explained by fault displacement than depositional drape or erosion. Buxton’s working interpretation is a releasing step in a strike-slip fault system, which provides a plausible conduit for the hydrothermal fluids logged in both maiden holes.

Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveying of both holes then identified a discrete conductive response sitting outside the intervals tested by either hole. That response is the direct basis for MD004DD’s targeting logic.

Managing Director Marty Moloney

“The maiden holes at Madman confirmed the presence of a basement hosted hydrothermal system with anomalous gold and copper plus alteration, structure and pathfinder signatures consistent with Paterson Orogen style gold-copper deposits such as Havieron, Winu and Telfer. That program also revealed an electromagnetic conductor sitting off to the north-northeast, and that is what MD004DD is designed to test.”

Understanding downhole EM surveying and what the conductor means

Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveying is a geophysical technique used in mineral exploration. A transmitter loop on the surface generates an electromagnetic field, and sensors lowered inside the drillhole measure how that field responds to different materials in the surrounding rock. Materials that conduct electricity well — known as conductors — produce a measurable response, allowing geophysicists to model where a conductive body might sit relative to the drillhole.

Importantly, a conductor identified via DHEM does not confirm the presence of mineralisation. The source of the conductive response at Madman is unknown, and responses of this character can be produced by sulphide mineralisation, graphite, magnetite, saline groundwater, or conductive lithologies. The announcement is explicit: no inference as to the presence, size, tenor, or continuity of sulphide mineralisation should be drawn from the plate models alone.

EM plate modelling is also non-unique. The plates shown in the company’s cross-section are alternative mathematical solutions that each independently satisfy the same measured response — they are not separate physical bodies. Modelled plate dimensions range from approximately 400 × 400 m to 1,000 × 1,000 m, with modelled conductances of approximately 400 to 1,000 Siemens. Plate orientation resolves consistently as striking northwest and dipping 55 to 75 degrees to the southwest, interpreted to reflect structural control.

For investors, the relevance is straightforward: an undrilled conductor sitting 250 m from the nearest hole, in a project area showing pathfinder chemistry consistent with Paterson Orogen-style Cu-Au systems, is precisely the kind of target that warrants follow-up drilling. MD004DD is designed to test:

• The off-hole EM conductor not intersected by MD002DD or MD003DD
• The structural fault zone interpreted between the two maiden holes
• The centroid of modelled conductive plate solutions between 600 m and 700 m downhole

Paterson Orogen context and what comes next for BUX

The Paterson Orogen is one of Australia’s most significant gold-copper exploration provinces, hosting world-class deposits including Havieron, Winu, and Telfer. Buxton’s management has drawn a geological comparison between Madman’s alteration, structural, and pathfinder signatures and Paterson Orogen-style Cu-Au systems — a comparison that frames the project’s exploration thesis without implying equivalent scale or certainty of outcome.

With MD004DD now underway, the near-term newsflow is defined. Planned next steps are:

1. Complete MD004DD (expected three to four weeks)
2. Receive MD003DD assay results (anticipated October 2026)
3. Ground gravity and ground EM surveys (heritage notices lodged, under review by Native Title Holders)
4. Further diamond drilling (subject to the same heritage process)

The conductor remains undrilled, the alteration system is confirmed across two holes, and MD003DD’s assays and MD004DD’s results will together either deepen or redirect the exploration thesis at Madman.

Buxton is running parallel exploration activity across its portfolio, with the Centurion drilling programme targeting a separate IOCG system concurrent with the Madman work.

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