EL 3961 lying 10 km north-west of Quorn forms part of the Hawker Project tenement package within the Adelaide Fold Belt that is being explored for sediment-hosted copper deposits. Licensee Copper Range has been looking for bleached, altered sandstone units that show evidence at surface of previous sulphide mineralisation, i.e. limonite after pyrite, and the development of secondary porosity, i.e. dissolved feldspars, interstitial quartz. It is believed that these units could have preferentially focussed the flow of mineralising fluids, which would have entered them along cross-cutting structures, and then have spread out laterally into more porous horizons. Overlying dolomite and shale cap rocks should have provided a seal to the fluids, allowing copper to later become precipitated out during the chemical reduction of pyrite or bitumen within the sandstone. Target sedimentary units present in the project area include the Wilyerpa Quartzite, the ABC and Rawnsley Quartzites and, at Mt Arden, the Yednalue Quartzite (overlain by the Skillogalee Dolomite). At Mount Arden, Copper Range also expected to find Carlin - style (sediment-hosted) gold mineralisation associated with altered Skillogalee Dolomite, because much observed alteration, including silicification, of this unit at Yadlamalka suggested the effects of extensive fluid flow and replacement of limestone. In this mineralisation model, fine-grained disseminated gold is precipitated from fluids flowing along controlling structures. The gold becomes concentrated within favourable carbonate lithologies. Initially, limited stream sediment sampling (7 samples) and rock chip sampling (13 samples) were conducted over an area of extensive surface rock alteration to clay minerals near Yadlamalka Woolshed, which had originally been recognised as a large ASTER satellite image anomaly. The collected samples were analysed by various methods capable of detecting ultra-trace concentrations of fine gold and certain other pathfinder elements. However, all of the samples returned gold values below detection limit, and no other significantly anomalous geochemical results. Subsequently the licence area was assessed for its iron ore potential, with unfavourable prospectivity indicated.