A number of portions of licence areas flanking known outcropping uraniferous basement rocks of the Padthaway Ridge have recently been relinquished, after originally being taken up to explore for possible economic sandstone-type uranium deposits that may have formed in onlapping Tertiary marginal marine sediments. The licensee has decided that in future it will investigate only the more extensive Murray Basin sediments, which onlap the Padthaway Ridge from the north and east and contain the right sedimentary aspects, including reduced lithologies such as lignite and pyrite, aquifers, oxidised horizons and bounding sedimentary seals. However, following the conduct of an extensive review of borehole and company data, the licensee has now lost interest in the Gambier Basin sediments previously included in its acreage, since they appear to contain only thin coal seams, are too difficult to access, contain too much groundwater, and have horizons that are not physically or chemically suitable for precipitating uranium. In future, South East Energy intends to focus its exploration effort on those retained licence portions where surface radiometric and geochemical anomalism occurs, because these areas are also likely to have been receiving uranium eroding from the nearby granite plutons for a significant part of the Cainozoic. The granites and associated volcanic rocks have been found to contain up to 10 x the average uranium content expected for generic such rock types. The licensee will particularly follow up those areas where in the 1970s Pacminex discovered elevated levels of uranium in its regional drilling and groundwater testing programmes.