Exploration reconnaissance work has been carried out over many old copper mines and prospects situated within a 172 square mile area located south of the town of Burra [the impetus being that recently the South Australian Department of Mines had proved the existence of 1,000,000 tons of 1-2% oxidised copper ore remaining below the old Burra Burra mine open cut, which is not in the subject SML area but lies just to the north of it]. The regional geological and structural settings, plus the mining history, of the abandoned Princess Royal, Saint Elmo and Edelweiss copper deposits, were reviewed and their prospectivity assessed, with recommendations made for further exploratory work. During 1964, detailed 1:4800 scale geological mapping was undertaken over surveyed prospect grids at Princess Royal / Utica, Saint Elmo, Edelweiss and Apoinga, and moving loop ground IP surveys were also acquired at these prospects plus at Karkulto along grid traverses spaced either 3000, 1500, 1000 or 500 feet apart, using 150, 200 or 300 foot dipole separations. A geochemical stream sediment sampling programme to assay minus-80 mesh sediment size fractions was performed within the district, accompanied by reconnaissance 1:47,520 scale geological mapping, which has revealed an area of low order anomalous V and Mo values situated between the Princess Royal mine and Burra township, as well as another such zone in Stone Chimney Creek, both of which cannot be explained and so warrant additional work. At the Princess Royal prospect, a possible untested deep zone of copper mineralisation was identified, that is associated with a transition from dolomite to shale country rocks within the overturned eastern limb of an anticline. It has little surface expression, but has been traced as an IP anomaly associated with high surface Cu values over a strike length of 4500 feet. During the period September 1965 to February 1966, 2 inclined NX diamond cored holes were drilled here to test the geophysical and geochemical anomalies, the first hole reaching 860 feet total depth and the second 430 feet. Neither hole reached its planned target depth (900 feet and 700 feet respectively) due to badly caving ground and persistent difficulties in penetrating a large, presumably continuous fault zone. The first, deeper hole appears to have straddled the source zone of the IP anomaly without encountering significant mineralisation. Only one quartz-carbonate vein carrying 2.7% Cu over a width of 2 feet 4 inches was intersected, and it is considered that spasmodic veining of this nature reaching to the surface has caused the observed geochemical anomaly. No mineralisation was encountered in the second, shallower hole. Both holes bottomed in graphitic and chloritic fault gouge, which material is now considered as being responsible for generating the IP anomaly.