In the latter stages of its search for possible economic base and precious metal deposits in the Bute area, North Broken Hill targeted the concealed pre-Adelaidean basement rocks for Mount Gunson or ?Olympic Dam type hydrothermal ores, and for Mount Isa type sedex ores, by continuing with exploratory diamond drilling based on auger geochemical bedrock sampling and the results of reconnaissance and detailed ground magnetic, gravity and induced polarisation surveys. The percussion precollared diamond drilling (28 holes totalling 4855.48 m) was useful in uncovering a great deal of new local stratigraphic information and in pointing to the causes of observed geophysical anomalies, but it did not reveal any metal mineralisation of note. It appears that near Bute there are an abundance of basic intrusive rocks within the Carpentarian basement, when compared to the Moonta region, besides the expected granitic porphyry and gneissic rocks, amphibolites and strongly hydrothermally altered dolomites and other chemical sedimentary lithologies. Due to the stratigraphic and tectonic complexity of this area of the Torrens Hinge Zone, even after 6 year's work NBH is not sure of its true mineral potential, other than to conclude that, despite the common presence of dispersed trace copper sulphides (< 0.15% Cu) near the Carpentarian - Adelaidean unconformity, a substantial near-surface metallic mineral occurrence is unlikely.