Exploration of an area of shallowly covered Curnamona Province metalliferous basement rocks abutting the South Australia / New South Wales border, approximately 80 km north-east of Olary, has addressed good potential for discovering a range of base metal / precious metal deposit types, including Broken Hill and Mount Isa / McArthur River style Pb-Zn-Ag deposits and Cloncurry style Cu-Au deposits, as well as Honeymoon type sedimentary uranium in buried Tertiary palaeochannels. At the outset, and prior to joint-venturing the area, Platsearch carried out a study of all available data, including modelling and interpretation of prominent aeromagnetic anomalies to quantify possible depths-to-source in order to define drilling targets. After signing a joint venture with Southern Cross Resources on 22/2/2002, that company flew an aerial EM survey over the western portion of the EL (as part of a larger AEM coverage acquired on adjoining licences) and followed it up with a programme of rotary mud drilling (8 holes, total 804 m) to investigate EM anomalies suggestive of an eastwards-trending tributary network to the Yarramba - Beefsteak palaeochannel system, that might onlap a major U-rich Willyaman granite pluton. The drilling results proved disappointing, and Southern Cross Resources withdrew from the JV agreement on 31/5/2004. A lack of well-developed sands in the palaeodrainage regolith, plus unfavourable downhole sedimentology, redox setting and neutron radiometric probe responses, were the exit reasons given. Inco farmed-into the tenement in March 2003 so that they could earn a 60% interest (excepting in any future Tertiary uranium discoveries) by funding prospect investigations and drill target generation over 3 years. For 2003 they undertook re-processing of aeromagnetic data and geophysical modelling of the very intense K1 magnetic anomaly, read three lines of surface, moving loop dipole-dipole EM survey, and drilled one rotary/diamond exploratory hole, IN6, to a total depth of 639.1 m on the Mammoth prospect fold structure (part of BHP Minerals' K9 magnetic anomaly grid). This drillhole, which was cored from 121 m depth, encountered magnetite-altered Lower Proterozoic metasediments of the Himalaya / Upper Albite formation sequence at 355 m depth which continued to the hole's TD, exhibiting rock compositional and structural indications, including abundant patchy haematite alteration and veining, that suggested proximity to a major iron-rich copper-gold hydrothermal system. In addition, while passing through the overlying Bimba Formation, which hosts massive base metal sulphide mineralisation at the Polygonum and Mundi Mundi prospects a short distance across the border in NSW, the drillhole intersected several narrow intervals of low grade zinc and lead mineralisation with locally massive sulphides (pyrite - sphalerite; best assay result 1.6 m @ 3.67% Zn + 0.58% Pb from 219.9-221.5 m). Subsequently, and notwithstanding the encouraging tenor of these results, but due to an abrupt change in their corporate focus to purely seeking after nickel, Inco terminated the option agreement with Platsearch on 31/1/2004. The most recent work completed on EL 2776 by Platsearch has been the re-logging of BHP Minerals' diamond corehole KD94/002, which was drilled into an ironstone basement target under about 120 m of cover at the K1 aeromagnetic anomaly (the largest geophysical feature in the area - maximum amplitude nearly 7500 nT). The latest geological interpretation for the rocks seen in this drill core has enhanced the prospectivity of the K1 anomaly, with host rock features recognized that are analogous to those seen at Ernest Henry, Osbourne and in the Tennant Creek mineral field. During late 2004 Platsearch also contracted the acquisition of a set of detailed ground magnetics and gravity lines across the K1 prospect to allow additional geophysical modelling, which showed the anomaly to be caused by a large, steeply south-westwards dipping ellipsoidal magnetic body, probably of the order of 100-200 million tonnes in size. With the help of this ground data to aid in drill collar location, new licence farminee Western Plains Gold intends in 2005 to drill two inclined rotary/diamond holes each to about 300 m depth on the K1 anomaly, with 800 m of contigent follow-up diamond drilling also planned for 2006. Similar precursor detailed ground magnetic surveying and geophysical modelling will then be conducted at the K2 aeromagnetic anomaly.