Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX) expects to mobilise a rig in early November to begin maiden drilling at its Wolverine Copper-Molybdenum Project in Arizona, US.
The company has signed a contract with LSG Drilling for three diamond core holes totalling about 1,650m.
Two holes target the Wolverine prospect, while a third tests the adjoining Copper Chief area. Neither target has been drill-tested.
All approvals and site preparation are complete. The Bureau of Land Management has extended the Notice of Operations to April 2028 and amended it to cover up to four drill pads. Meanwhile, access tracks, pads, and dedicated water bores are now in place.
Managing Director Martin Moloney says the contract allows the company to move from preparation to drilling.
“With permitting, access, pads, and water all in place, we’re set to mobilise in early November and deliver the first drill test of these outcropping porphyry copper–molybdenum targets,” Moloney explains.
The project sits about 65km north-northeast of Phoenix in Yavapai County. It adjoins the Copper Wolf Porphyry Project, which IGO (ASX:IGO) holds 100%, following an asset sale completed on 29 June 2026.
Buxton holds 100% of Wolverine and controls Copper Chief under a lease and option agreement.
At Wolverine, outcropping mineralised porphyry dykes intrude Proterozoic granitoids. That setting would let Buxton test the porphyry system at shallower depths than in covered parts of the district.
Rock-chip sampling returned copper grades up to 14.15% and molybdenum up to 1,160 parts per million in separate samples.
A drone magnetic survey flown in 2024 showed a 1,200m by 250m cluster of anomalies coinciding with mineralised porphyry dykes.
Buxton interprets these magnetic features as reflecting either mafic host rocks or high concentrations of magnetite-bearing porphyry veins. Previous drilling at Copper Wolf found that both associations strongly favour copper mineralisation.
The company expects drilling to take about six weeks, with first assays due in early 2027. It is also planning further mapping and sampling for the Arizona winter field season.
Buxton Resources is an Australian explorer advancing copper-gold in Western Australia’s Paterson and Canning basins, battery-grade graphite in the state’s Gascoyne region, as well as copper-molybdenum in Arizona.
Write to JC Villarba at Mining.com.au
Images: Buxton Resources
