In its successful application to PIRSA for a grant of PACE Initiative Year 4 drilling project funding, Alliance Craton Explorer announced that it had generated an extremely attractive geophysical target with potential for Mesoproterozoic basement - hosted iron oxide style Cu-Au (IOCG) mineralisation at Big North West, a regionally significant magnetic/gravity target mapped below an area of the Mabel Creek gravity high that has a relatively reduced thickness of Phanerozoic cover. It was argued that this target has strong similarities with other IOCG deposits discovered on the Gawler Craton at Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill, in terms of the almost coincident gravity and magnetic anomalies, plus the proven presence nearby of iron oxide alteration and minor copper sulphide mineralisation associated with inferred Hiltaba Suite intrusions at the previously drilled BigNE prospect. The single vertical hole PACE-subsidised drilling programme, of rotary mud and HQ/NQ diamond coring carried out to a total depth of 601.5 m has provided lithological, mineralogical and hydrogeological /stratigraphic data in a highly prospective Mesoproterozoic region of the Gawler Craton that has largely remained unexplored. Results from BNW01/01a established that the shallower than expected sediment cover at the prospect has a thickness of approximately 250 m. While no high assay values were returned from basement rock sampling, there remains sufficient encouragement that the adopted IOCG model is prospective, due to a supportive relationship seen between anomalous Cu, Au and U. However, the drillhole penetrated the basement metamorphic foliation at an unfavourably steep angle, and hence did not provide a good indication of the nature of the surrounding wall rock. Petrological samples from the drillhole will be subjected to further study to augment existing stratigraphic correlations based on the subsurface results obtained to date. Additional assays are required in the pre-collar interval, between 153-256 m depth, relating to possible U mineralisation. Dependent upon the outcome of this work, adjacent drilling site/s already given heritage clearance would be prioritised for an early extension of the prospect drilling programme.