A multi-licence area located between 65 km and 170 km south-east of Coober Pedy was taken up to explore for possible economic precious and base metal deposits that might lie concealed within shallow Proterozoic basement. Exploration activity during the first two years of tenure consisted of semi-detailed airborne geophysical surveying with ground follow-up of significant anomalies, leading to reconnaissance drilling at selected priority targets. During May 1988, Aerodata Holdings flew an 8000 line km aeromagnetic and radiometric survey for grant licensee Metals Exploration, which comprised north-south flight lines spaced 300 m apart, using a nominal 70 m sensor height above the ground surface. Metals Exploration defined 50 magnetic anomalies of interest amongst the survey's processed data, and 30 of these were given priority for gridding and ground magnetic delineation once a Landsat imagery lineament study had been completed. A programme of RC drilling commenced in November 1988, and by late February 1989, when unseasonally wet weather stopped progress, 5 drillholes had been completed for a total penetration of 712 m, comprising 231 m of blade percussion, 385 m of RC hammer and 96.1 m of NQ diamond coring (the last being necessary to reach basement in holes where sands flowing from within the cover interval halted the open hole RC technique). The drilling was not able to recommence at all in the following year, due to the saturated ground conditions which persisted on the local pastoral properties, precluding access by heavy vehicles. The drilling which was carried out first, at the most favoured 'Venus' magnetic anomaly of a circular pipe-like nature, located about 9 km south-southwest of Birthday Hill, produced the most encouraging result of the programme when it encountered intervals of massive magnetite metasomatism containing skarn type chlorite-feldspar alteration and carbonate veining, forming a replacement mineral assemblage within granodiorite-diorite and granite. Assaying of a 6 m wide sulphidic intercept cored below 110.39 m depth in this hole, where pyrite-pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite in the ratio of 5:4:1 appears to replace up to 10% of the magnetite, gave maximum values of 0.2% Cu, 0.07% Pb, 0.07% Zn, 0.08% Ba, 64 ppm U and 0.12 g/t Au. This precious metal and base metal mineralisation was regarded by Mines Exploration as anomalous, but did not point towards anything economic, particularly in the light of the poor results next obtained from the other four drillholes sited some distance away to the west, since they encountered only unaltered or moderately magnetite-rich granite, granodiorite and diorite. A farm-out agreement to allow earning a 50% interest in the subject licences was effected late in 1989, and was approved on 22/5/1990, whereupon new partner Burmine Exploration assumed the technical management of ELs 1448 and 1465 and resumed field work after confirming that thirteen magnetic anomalies were drill-ready. Burmine considered that the Mount Woods joint venture area had high prospectivity for: 1) Roxby Downs style Cu-Au-U mineralisation hosted in a haematitic granite breccia, and in granitoid rocks 2) Au-Cu mineralisation in a felsic to intermediate volcanic pile, e.g. like WMC's Acropolis deposit 3) stratabound banded iron formation/related gold mineralisation 4) Cu-Au mineralisation in magnetite-rich calc-silicate skarn rocks, e.g. like Red Dome in Qld and 5) diamondiferous kimberlite pipes. During August 1990, 1:5000 scale geological mapping and rock chip sampling of the region's scarce examples of outcropping metasedimentary basement were undertaken in the vicinity of Mount Woods near the southern boundary of EL 1465, hoping to find evidence of possible stratabound, Menninnie Dam style lead-zinc mineralisation within the complexly folded carbonate horizons recorded there. However, a close inspection revealed that the thin dolomite beds are sheared and appear to occupy fault planes that are parallel to the bedding and foliation of banded quartzo-feldspathic gneisses and schists. When the dolomite and surrounding strata were geochemically sampled across strike near the nose of the principal fold closure, no anomalous base metal values were detected, although elevated gold values to 0.32 g/t Au were returned from magnetitic bands in the gneiss. During September-November 1990, Burmine completed the drilling of 12 inclined RC holes for an aggregate 1965 m at 10 widely spaced magnetic targets, 9 of which were on EL 1448. One anomaly, Neptune, yielded minor but persistent magnetite-pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralisation of interest (best assay result 12 m @ 0.21% Cu and 0.12 g/t Au below 79 m depth) that was developed on the surface of late stage microfractures within a silicified hornblende syenite continuing over a drilled interval of 96 m to the hole TD, the tenor of copper content appearing to increase with depth in the drillhole, accompanying an increase in visible sulphides to around 2% by volume. Minor intercepts of magnetite- chalcopyrite (including 4 m @ 0.2% Cu and 0.09 g/t Au from 153 m depth) were also intersected in a phlogopite skarn at the Uranus prospect located ~4.2 km to the west-northwest of Neptune. Drilling at Earth prospect located slightly further away to the north-east failed to reach the basement due to collapsed hole bogging the drill rods at 174 m depth, whilst at the other eight prospects, where no mineralisation was found, the magnetite content that is present either in sheared granite, amphibolite or ultramafic intrusive rocks or in gneisses and metasediments adequately explained the target magnetic anomalies. Petrographical studies were performed on a suite of 18 basement rock samples recovered as drill cuttings and drill core from the project area by the joint venture's drilling. These studies suggested that two mineralised geological settings exist there: 1) a metasomatic replacement skarn type of environ, where younger granitoid rocks and their solutions (i.e. either or both the Engenina Adamellite and Balta Granite) have remobilised magnetite and associated sulphides from calc-silicates, calcareous metasediments, BIF and impure banded ironstone facies. This particular setting was invoked for Mars, Armstrong, Uranus and especially Venus. It was interpreted that Venus had undergone multiphase metasomatic alteration stemming from both intrusive phases, whereas the other localities had only been affected by the post-orogenic Balta Granite intrusion. 2) a fluorine-rich hydrothermal event associated with silica flooding and introduced magnetite-pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralisation crystallising on late stage fractures in trachyte. This setting was found at Neptune. Subsequent whole rock analysis performed during March 1991 on 9 selected drillhole samples from Mars, Armstrong, Uranus and Neptune prospects revealed unusually high contents of barium (to 1600 ppm Ba), lanthanum (to 240 ppm La) and cerium (to 350 ppm Ce) at Neptune, prompting comparison with similar element enrichments observed by Western Mining Corp. in the mineralised haematite-rich breccias at the giant Olympic Dam deposit. Also during March 1991, 18 line km of gridding, 12 line km of ground magnetics, 10 line km of dipole-dipole IP surveying, 3 line km of gradient array IP surveying and one resistivity sounding were completed at Neptune to look for indications of additional breccia-related Cu-Au mineralisation. The IP work defined several low-order responses on 5 of 11 surveyed lines, so 3 inclined RC percussion holes for 578 m were drilled to test them. This drilling failed to identify the source of the IP anomalies, but gave indications that two subsidiary circular magnetic anomalies near Neptune (Alpha and Neptune South) are probably caused by the same feature of magnetite-bearing fractures within trachytes. Three lines of gradient array IP were acquired at Uranus prospect, 8 km west of Neptune, as part of the March 1991 survey programme. A poorly defined, weak IP anomaly was detected just 100 m north of the centre of the magnetic high, but was not drill tested. During the remainder of 1991 the joint venturers conducted a review of the exploration results so far obtained, and tried to fit them within the known regional geological and tectonic framework. After June 1991, Burmine decided to seek another joint venture partner to help expedite the way forward. [abstract continues in Part 2 index record]