As part of continuing joint venture investigations into the Tertiary sedimentary uranium mineralisation potential of the Watson Palaeochannel, 9 vertical rotary mud exploratory holes with a total penetration of 639 m were drilled into that wholly subsurface feature where it was interpreted to cross the southern part of EL 3323. Water supply wells drilled previously by Iluka Resources in late 2006 had encountered thick sections of early Eocene fluvial sands underneath Pidinga Formation lignites. Of particular interest, holes in Iluka's central [to the tenement] group were found to have a thick sequence of oxidised, haematitic sands sitting on basement, while further downstream in the palaeochannel a southern group of holes had encountered lignitic, pyritic, reduced sands at the same level. In addition, geochemical assays of samples recovered from drillholes of the central group had identified significant uranium anomalism within the sands and in the associated groundwater. This has been interpreted by Uranium Equities to be indicative of a potentially mineralised system. During that company's subsequent drilling programme, difficult drilling conditions were encountered, and two of the nine holes could not be successfully completed. Of the seven that were, another three experienced major shortcomings when their drill sample returns to the surface were lost due to an inability to fully case off karst cavities in the overlying Nullarbor Limestone. Consequently, no drillhole geological logs are available for holes WAT006, WAT007 and WAT009 due to these problems. However, inspections of the drill bit used did reveal that basement saprolitic clays had been penetrated at the base of drillholes WAT006 and WAT007, put down at locations where the airborne EM data had suggested that a thick sequence of Tertiary sediments should have been intersected before the basement was reached. In the bottom of hole WAT009 the drilling encountered solid resistance similar to that felt when fresh biotite gneissic basement was encountered at the bottom of hole WAT005. Downhole geophysical logs were obtained for each of the successful drillholes, and 157 selected drill cuttings samples from holes WAT001, WAT002, WAT004 and WAT005 were analysed on site with a portable Niton XRF spectrometric instrument. Assaying samples in this manner reduced the requirement to physically send samples to an external laboratory, thereby saving time and money. The Eocene sedimentary sequence that was logged suggested a restricted fluvial to estuarine depositional environment within a more mixed floodplain environment. The channel sands are interbedded with rather thin, and presumably discontinuous, lignitic sands and clays. Although the presence of lignitic clay provides some reducing influence within the target section, and some lignite-stained sands were intersected adjacent to these lignitic zones, the palaeochannel sands encountered in these holes are predominantly oxidised throughout, except for in the vicinity of the basement contact. It was concluded that the close juxtaposition between Eocene fluvial sediments and uranium-enriched source rocks during sedimentation is well supported by the drilling data to hand, and that lateral continuity between potential source rocks and potential host rocks is now well demonstrated throughout the project area. Thick sequences of laterally continuous host sediments have also been revealed. Earlier evidence of groundwater and drill cuttings being elevated in uranium content have been confirmed by the Uranium Equities drilling, with comparably anomalous zones encountered in most holes, including one anomaly having up to 100 ppm eU3O8 which was indicated by the downhole gamma ray log recorded in drillhole WAT004. The target thick fluvial sands sitting on top of the basement appear to have trapped less uranium than was expected, and the reasons for this are presently unknown. On the other hand, the upper Tertiary sedimentary sequence seems to be more highly elevated in uranium than expected, and one explanation for this may be relict uranium remaining above a falling water table. It was recommended that additional drilling exploration work should be conducted in the Watson Project area. The operator believed that the widely spaced (~2 km x 2 km) drillholes so far completed did not rule out the possible presence of significant uranium orebodies in between them. Furthermore, it was suggested that basement subcrop margins and lesser tributary channels might possibly represent better targets in which to look for mineralisation than the main palaeochannel itself. However, a planned follow-up rotary mud drilling and wireline geophysical logging programme, of 10 holes totalling about 1500 m, was not commenced before the joint venture decided to surrender tenure of the project ground.