The southern portion of the Mount Painter Province held under ELs 871 and 1049 contains Adelaidean sediments of the Upper Callanna Beds and Burra Group overlying the Carpentarian Mount Painter Complex. Reconnaissance work by Marathon Petroleum during 1979-1980 has indicated the presence of anomalous gold and copper values at the top of the Blue Mine Conglomerate, and anomalous Au at the top of the Wortupa Quartzite. There is no record of any previous company exploration for gold within the Adelaidean sediments, despite the known anomalous copper within pyritic quartzite and conglomerate at the top of the Blue Mine Conglomerate, close to its contact with 'reduced' marine shales of the Opaminda Formation. This environment is now recognized as also a prime target for diagenetic gold mineralisation. A genetic model has been proposed involving the precipitation of auriferous pyrite (up to 30 ppb Au) and chalcopyrite from boron and metal-rich groundwater solutions at the redox interface between the Blue Mine and Opaminda stratigraphic units, both during initial sedimentation and subsequent diagenesis. Weathering of these strata releases the gold into minute cavities lined with tourmaline and pyrite (and/or limonite after pyrite). Petrological work suggests that the highest Au values (up to 2 ppm) are obtained where siltstone and K-feldspar phenoclasts in the congomerate have been coated or totally replaced by tourmaline. It is recommended that Marathon undertake a detailed sampling programme over the tops of the major mineralised units in order to assess their stratiform gold potential.