The trigger event causing this data release to be made is that three portions of licence ground that together cover ~289 square km or 19.5% of the former area of EL 4217 Barton East have now been relinquished, as of 11/1/2011. No corresponding partial relinquishment of licence ground has been made for EL 4216 Barton West. The two subject licences, covering a 120 km long north-south strip located immediately east and north-east of Barton Siding on the Trans Australian Railway, are being explored by Dominion Mining for hydrothermal and metamorphic gold deposits hosted by buried Archaean basement rocks. These licences were applied for by the Gawler JV partners early in 1997, immediately following their gold discovery of this type made at the Challenger prospect. The Barton East licence area also forms part of a group of tenements located on the eastern margin of the Eucla Basin north of Ceduna that are being explored for economic heavy mineral (HM) marine placer deposits by Iluka Resources, under a joint venture agreement that was signed in 1999. During the first year of project licences' joint reporting, in mid-2001, a programme of regional reconnaissance soil calcrete geochemical sampling was undertaken, with a total of 850 samples collected systematically across both licence areas from shallow auger drillholes. A highest gold assay values of 21 ppb Au was obtained at Area E on Barton East EL 2282. On Barton West EL 2281, four linear calcrete gold anomalies were identified lying subparallel to interpreted magnetic basement geological structures. The largest anomaly occupies a NNE trending zone, named the Notrab anomaly, centred about 11 km north of the Transcontinental Railway between Barton and Immarna. The initial 2 km x 500 m spaced calcrete sampling outlined anomalous (+4 ppb Au) gold values to a maximum of 16 ppb Au covering a 6 km x 2 km area. At the time, Dominion commented that in general the levels of gold in these samples are lower than those in the calcretes sampled throughout Dominion’s Central Tenements Area (including the Challenger deposit district). While this may suggest a poorer gold endowment for the Barton region, it was also noted that the calcretes in this region tend to be less pure and, therefore, may be less efficient in precipitating dispersing gold. Consequently, lower level anomalies might still be significant. No field work was done on either licence during the next four years. To belatedly follow up on the above-described surface anomalies, during licence Years 5 and 7 Dominion performed infill calcrete sampling in September-December 2001 and in June 2003 respectively, with 850 + 81 samples collected. At the Notrab prospect on EL 3092 Barton West, infill calcrete sampling done at 250 m x 250 m spacing during 2001 confirmed the original anomaly's trend and outlined peak values of 85.5 ppb Au and 32 ppb Au. However, the far lower maximum gold assay values of 15 ppb Au and 5 ppb Au returned from the 2003 infill sampling done at Areas E and F on Barton East EL 3093 were deemed to be insignificant. In early 2005, as part of a collaborative project between PIRSA and Dominion, laboratory multi-element analyses were carried out on Dominion’s Barton tenements calcrete samples in an attempt to better define the area's nickel potential as had been suggested by strongly anomalous Ni and associated anomalous Cu. The anomalies indicated that there could be potential for komatiite hosted nickel sulphides, or perhaps intrusive related nickel-PGE mineralisation. PIRSA assayed 1406 retained soil and calcrete samples which had been taken from ELs 3092 and 3093 and the licences previously held by Dominion Gold Operations [Note: PIRSA holds the sample locations and assay data, so they are not presented here - see instead the separately held data and later account of the project's progress, which are contained in GDP 00009]. In April 2005, a RAB/aircore drilling programme commenced at the Notrab prospect on EL 3092 Barton West to test selected gold-in-calcrete anomalies, as part of the SA Government's PACE Initiative Theme 2 funding collaboration with industry, realised via Year 2 drilling partnership no. DPY2-52. However, due to encountering free-flowing sands, the campaign was temporarily suspended to find a more suitable drill rig. Initially, 6 shallow vertical RAB/aircore holes were completed for a total penetration of 187.5 m. 40 x 5-metre interval drill cuttings composite samples were collected to assay for gold, arsenic and copper. The maximum gold assay value obtained from downhole bedrock sampling was 33 ppb Au. Six composite drill cuttings samples were collected from selected strandline sand zones to submit for heavy mineral analysis. The best HM intercepts reported were 16 m @ 2.64% (in hole 05NTAC004) and 13 m @ 2.23% HM. In them the zircon content ranges from 4 to 10.6%. During the 2005-2006 licence year, the remainder of the PACE-subsidised drilling campaign on EL 3092 Barton West was completed (76 vertical aircore holes for 2827.5 m). 36 of these holes targeted gold in basement lithologies, and the other 40 targeted heavy minerals in the Tertiary cover sequence. The results of this drilling project are reported separately [see Env 11071]. A significant, widespread heavy mineral sands placer deposit was discovered, covering an area of at least 15 km x 5 km within Eocene palaeoshoreline barrier sands, which remained open in all directions. During the 2006-2007 licence year, Dominion was granted additional PACE Initiative drilling project funds to let it appraise the Notrab HM discovery. Unfortunately, the planned DPY3-22 drilling programme had to be significantly curtailed due to physical access and logistical problems, with a total of only 47 of the planned 171 holes completed for 1301.5 m aggregate penetration. However, this amount of drilling did successfully extend the zone of +1% HM occurrence towards the north-east for a further 5 km, and more clearly defined it as being controlled by a buried NE-SW trending stratigraphic feature [see Env 11286] which appeared to have developed as a link barrier between the more continuous, NW-SE trending Ooldea and Barton coastline-parallel barriers. No field work was done on EL 3093 Barton East. During the 2007-2008 licence year (Year 10), in July-August 2007, Dominion undertook mostly step-out aircore traverse drilling of the Notrab deposit on a 2.5 km x 1 km grid, plus limited known HM occurrence appraisal infill drilling (total 94 vertical holes for 2257 m). This work extended the known distribution of +1% HM mineralisation at Notrab much further northwards, to now cover a north-south distance of 25 km and width of up to 12.5 km. This extent of HM placer development was seen as unusually large for the SA Eucla Basin. More than half of the holes were terminated at blade refusal in basement saprolite, while the remainder stopped within the sedimentary cover. 9 holes located in the northern part of the tenement intersected carbonaceous fluvial sediments of the Pidinga Formation. Assaying of the bedrock samples returned maximum values of 10 ppb Au (in hole 07NTAC137) and 80 ppm As. Observations of HM assemblages present in the Notrab drill cuttings samples show zircon contents ranging between 6-21%, rutile 2-10%, ilmenite 50-67% and leucoxene 6-24%. Mineralogical analyses undertaken for Dominion by CSIRO Minerals on five selected 'magnetic fraction' ilmenite-rich samples indicated that they are mainly composed of pseudorutile. This mineral is relatively enriched in titanium, and thus can be used to produce a high value synthetic rutile. During the 2008-2009 licence year, as in the year before, Dominion undertook a similar kind of both regional exploration and local infill drilling work, completing 147 new vertical aircore holes for 3798 m in August-September 2008 which provided better definition of the extent of mineralisation at Notrab and provided data that was used to estimate an initial Inferred Mineral Resource for the deposit, of 171.7 Mt @ 2.8% HM, with an overburden ratio of 3.7. This resource occurs in both strandline and lagoonal facies sands. Within the Cainozoic sequence a distinctive stratigraphic succession is present, although lateral facies variation is marked. Three distinctive target sand facies are now recognised to be present, reflecting differences in sites of deposition. These facies vary between zero to >20 m in thickness, their development being strongly influenced by pre-existing basement topography, as is the distribution of entrapped HM. The gross sequence is suggestive of marine transgression followed by regression and the onset of a fluvial depositional environment. Silcrete is commonly present at the top of the target sand sequence, appearing to be almost ubiquitous in the main Notrab prospect area. Precambrian basement was penetrated in 79 of the holes and was assayed for gold, copper and arsenic. Several holes yielded low level anomalous gold (peak 14 ppb Au) and arsenic (peak 140 ppm As). A peak copper value of 83 ppm Cu was thought to reflect a mafic source nearby in the local basement. Planned speculative exploration by intending farminee Deep Yellow Ltd to look for possible buried Tertiary palaeochannel uranium mineralisation on EL 4217 Barton East did not proceed, following discussions with Maralinga Tjarutja and the Oak Valley Community. During the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 licence years, no field work was done. All existing drill sites were rehabilitated. Dominion sought to attract a joint venture partner to further define and develop the HM resource on its renewed EL 4216 Barton West. The amount of deposit delineation drilling and sampling still required was estimated to involve ~7500 m of drilling in up to 250 holes, plus the collection of ~1250 sediment samples for HM fraction separation. Plans were made to conduct exploratory RC drilling (4 x 150 m deep vertical holes) to test the basement beneath the Notrab surface and bedrock interface gold-copper anomalies. Since known Tertiary palaeochannels located on its renewed EL 4217 Barton East have inferred good potential for hosting economic sedimentary uranium mineralisation, Dominion was also seeking a JV partner to investigate this possibility and to continue prior access negotiations with the Maralinga Tjarutja aboriginal community on progressing this matter. In addition, it was hoped that the cover sediments on EL 4217 might be shown by future drilling to contain groundwater resources suitable to use for the development of any HM resource on EL 4216.