An area located approximately 160 km north-northwest of Ceduna is being explored for possible economic nickel-copper-platinum group metal magmatic mineral deposits, which may have formed within Archaean to Proterozoic basement rocks in a geological and structural setting that is believed to be analogous to that occupied by the mined Thompson Nickel Belt in the Central Canadian Shield. Previous widely spaced reconnaissance bedrock drilling carried out by MESA disclosed the presence of a 30 km long zone of intermediate to ultramafic intrusive igneous rocks lying adjacent to a major crustal structure, the Colona Shear Zone, that is geochemically anomalous in gold, nickel, chromium, platinum and palladium. Near the northern end of this zone, the MESA drilling encountered highly anomalous chromium in two holes, with best results of 11 m @ 1.8%, 8 m @ 5.34% and 15 m @ 2% Cr. During the week of 19-27/8/2004, PlatSearch's initial joint venturer Inco Resources flew a detailed, 250 m x 5 km cross-tie line spaced, 1903 line km helicopter-borne aerial EM and magnetic survey across the central-western portion of EL 3234 to look for high conductance sources in shallow basement. The resultant EM anomalies were then prioritised, and the highest ranked ones had infill coverage flown over them. Subsequently, a geophysical consultant selected thirteen basement conductors as possible targets of interest, although it was quite apparent that a variable but >100 m thickness of cover sediments had created high signal noise levels which made it very difficult to identify bedrock conductive sources. Following much additional in-house processing of the airborne EM data that did not markedly improve the frequency response, GEM Geophysical Surveys was contracted in September 2005 to acquire time domain ground-based moving loop EM data over 22 selected areas. Unfortunately, this work yielded results which Inco still regarded as equivocal and unreliable, and consequently in 2006 it decided to withdraw from the joint venture agreement with PlatSearch. A new nickel-based joint venture agreement was signed with Chesser Resources on 13/3/2007, whereby, like Inco, it could earn a 60% interest in the licence by funding the next year's planned exploration activity. This was to comprise 50.4 line km of follow-up more detailed grids (100 m line spacing, 50 m station interval) of moving loop EM coverage (526 stations), work that was eventually carried out by contractor Solo Geophysics during October-November 2007, over seven prospects having coincident magnetic and EM anomalies that were thought by PlatSearch to be worthy of further investigation. Chesser Resources paid for the EM data to be acquired, but this second joint venture was also short-lived, being officially dissolved on 30/7/2008 due to the company wishing to pursue other goals. A moderately conductive 600 m long body was delineated at the Grid 1 locality, which is where the formerly identified chromium-rich ultrabasic rocks subcrop. As well, two near-vertical buried strong conductors were defined at the Grid 2 locality. This locality (re-named as the Defender prospect) was also later targeted by PlatSearch for possible epithermal/hydrothermal copper-gold mineralisation, and for likely iron ore developed in banded iron formations (BIF), through its conduct of detailed ground magnetic and gravity surveys during October 2008. The detailed ground magnetic survey run at the Defender prospect delineated a complex magnetic anomaly extending for 1.4 km along strike, with highs of up to 6000 nT magnitude. The accompanying detailed gravity data showed some density anomalies that partly overlap the magnetic peaks, and therefore could represent drilling targets for magnetite/haematite ore. Some earlier RC drilling at Defender (Helix Resources, 1999-2000) that was targeting gold had encountered significant thicknesses (18-20 m) of magnetite BIF, plus one 8 m thick interval of haematite. Currently, Platsearch's modelling of the magnetic data for four prospects which were surveyed along the Colona Fault Zone within the subject licence has suggested that 30 to 100 m thick magnetite BIF units may occur at each prospect. During 2008-2009 a review of the Wynbring area's heavy mineral sands potential was conducted, mainly by inspecting available MESA drillhole samples. It was noted that the Ooldea Sand shoreline facies sediments in the south of EL 3234 are virtually untested, and they appear to have good prospectivity because of their proximity to Iluka Resources' recently discovered Mojave and Oolabinna HMS occurrences on ground just to the south.