PACE Initiative Year 5 funding for exploratory drilling was granted to Stellar Resources under its proposal DPY-5-44 for a project designed to test geophysical targets within EL 3978 which were interpreted / inferred to represent alaskite units present within the concealed Proterozoic basement, underlying predominantly unconsolidated Cowell Basin Tertiary sediments. Several drill targets had been defined, primarily through recognition of density lows in both regional and prospect-scale gravity data. Previous drilling in the Cowell area had encountered weakly to moderately uraniferous alkali feldspar - dominant intrusive rocks that exhibit similarities to economically uranium - mineralised alaskite units occurring in the Rossing district of Namibia. Four precollared diamond drillholes were completed during January-February 2008 for a total penetration of 960.95 m, comprising 741.50 m of rotary mud precollaring and 219.45 m of diamond coring. Adverse ground conditions, associated with thicker-than-expected cover sequence sands and lignitic beds of the Cowell Basin, curtailed the drilling programme and resulted in the loss of drilling equipment downhole. At the Glensea prospect, drillhole COD011 tested the gravity gradient near the edge of a magnetic feature where Avoca Resources' and Stellar Resources' previous drilling had returned anomalous basement rare earth element and uranium values, while drillhole COD012 tested the centre of a gravity low lying to the south. COD011 encountered variably chlorite+epidote+haematite altered, strongly foliated gneiss, meta-feldspathic sediments and lesser crosscutting aplitic intrusions beneath a thick Cowell Basin sedimentary sequence of clays, fossiliferous limestone, marl and lignitic sands. Drillhole COD012 encountered highly fractured/jointed, chlorite+haematite altered fine to medium-grained monzonite granite beneath similarly thick cover sediments. At the Franklin Prospect, drillhole COD013 targeted the flank of a gravity low in the vicinity of previous anomalous uranium results, while drillhole COD014 tested the gravity low proper. Here the drilling encountered a thicker-than-expected, predominantly unconsolidated Cowell Basin sedimentary sequence, resulting in the abandonment of drillhole COD013 at 204 m depth within coarse grained angular quartz-lignitic sand. Drillhole COD014 penetrated a fine to medium-grained, weakly to strongly altered monzonitic granite from 179.2 m depth to end of hole, immediately beneath an also thicker-than-expected sequence of Cowell Basin sediments. The monzonitic granite is similar to that noted in drillhole COD006. No coarser grained, alaskite-type basement units were found, such as had been met with in previous drilling at this prospect. Anomalous Cu-REE+U-Mo assays were returned over variable intervals within the basement. The better uranium intersections, to 33.6 ppm U, come from interpreted fine grained, weakly haematitic monzogranites penetrated in drillholes COD011 and COD014. In COD011 anomalous uranium is associated with anomalous to highly anomalous molybdenum and elevated niobium, while in COD014 elevated to anomalous uranium has associated anomalous to highly anomalous thorium (112.5 ppm Th). At the Glensea Prospect, copper mineralisation occurs primarily as irregular cross-cutting veins ranging in width from 1-2 mm to 1-2cm, and as small angular grains disseminated sparsely and unevenly through the rock (best intercept 0.85 m @ 0.26% Cu below 237.7 m depth in hole COD011). No anomalous uranium geochemistry was returned from the Eocene lignites and lignitic sands intersected within the interpreted palaeodrainage channels. In section, the shallowest sedimentary Miocene clays, marl and fossiliferous limestone are of a relatively uniform thickness across both prospects. Underlying Eocene black lignitic sands, lignite and minor highly organic material overlie an incised basement topography. The anomalous gravity data is now interpreted as primarily a product of this incised basement topography, although the resulting palaeodrainage features do appear to have developed mainly above prospective quartz monzonitic intrusions that contain broad zones of weakly anomalous uranium. Stellar Resources has decided that the prospectivity of the licence area to host economic Rossing - style uranium mineralisation has now been downgraded, due to the indicated depth to these units beneath Cowell Basin sediments.