The target was lignite or oil shale hosted by Tertiary sediments possibly preserved on top of a series of tilted fault blocks bordering the western shoreline of Spencer Gulf, due south-west of Whyalla. 29 vertical rotary mud drillholes (total 2729 m), the last eight of which were partially diamond cored, intersected carbonaceous material and lignite in Tertiary sediments equivalent to the Kanaka Beds of northern Yorke Peninsula. Coal analyses and oil shale hydrocarbon yield determinations were carried out on samples taken from the lignitic intervals. 17.95 line km of gravity readings were taken at 50 m intervals in the Nonowie area between drillholes PP 12 and PP 15, to reveal the position and throw of faults, and to determine whether a minor coal basin could exist in the northern part of the licence. 23.3 line km of ground magnetic survey readings were taken at 10 m intervals in the Murninnie area where the lignite deposit had been partly drilled, to map basement highs and thereby deduce where the distribution of undrilled lignite might lie. Order of magnitude resource calculations based on the results from 9 drillholes covering the area between Murninnie and immediately north of the Munyaroo Conservation Park, which are unsupported by any closer spaced drilling, have implied the existence there of a potential 100 Mt of sapropelic lignite, or a possible 260 Mt of such lignite plus oil shale.