Possible economic buried, fault-controlled, supergene stratabound type or replacement style base metal deposits formed within Cambrian carbonate rocks were the target of exploration carried out over the Lake Torrens area. A 1200 line mile airborne AFMAG and KEM VLF electromagnetic survey of E-W flight lines spaced 5 miles apart was conducted in February 1971 to try to trace buried extensions of both the Ediacara Fault and Norwest Fault near Lake Torrens, but the results proved inconclusive. Approximately half of the stored Lower Cambrian drillcores from the Santos 1950s petroleum drilling programme carried out at Wilkatana were chip sampled, and 374 of these samples were assayed for base metals, with discouraging results. Three detailed ground gravity survey traverses totalling 21 line miles were conducted over prospective regional Bouguer gravity anomalies seen east of Lake Torrens, seeking possible shallow pre-Mesozoic bedrock and, in particular, Ediacara type fault-bounded Cambrian sub-basins. However, interpretation of the resulting gravity profiles determined that the probable causes to these anomalies are non-prospective lateral density variations within the Adelaidean Copley Quartzite and/or Skillogalee Dolomite. A vertical rotary percussion hole drilled on the eastern side of the Nankabunyana negative gravity anomaly, located 12 miles north-west of the Ediacara Mineral Field, failed to find the anticipated enclosed Palaeozoic sedimentary basin, but instead penetrated 670 feet into a sequence of unmineralised Cainozoic sediments.