Nine licence areas occupying a 70 km x 30 km region overlying a west-northwest trending structural corridor situated along the northern margin of the Gawler Craton, have been explored for possible buried large-scale deposits of iron oxide - associated copper-gold-uranium (IOCG-U) mineralisation that may be related to significant coincident magnetic and gravity features lately identified by project operator Uranium Equities Limited (UEQ). Historic petroleum exploration seismic reflection survey data showed that the region overlies a structurally elevated basement high within a part of the Nawa Domain known as the Bitchera Ridge. Subsurface exploration done here previously had been very sparse, and there were no drillholes penetrating basement. UEQ believed that the project area could also be highly prospective for buried sediment-hosted uranium occurrences within the Cenozoic Hamilton Basin. Therefore the company engaged Chrysoar Exploration to undertake a regional evaluation of the night time thermal infrared (NTIR) emission spectral data obtained by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellites. Data for selected day and night time thermal bands were acquired in June 2010 and analysed to identify potential palaeochannels which would be associated with signals indicating contrasting moisture content. UEQ also commissioned ex-Delhi Petroleum geophysicist Andy McGee to look at vintage regional seismic data for the project area for evidence of any palaeochannel structures in the near-surface cover sequence. Limited seismic line coverage and the past use of unsuitable acquisition parameters for capturing shallow reflections hampered him in making confident picks of channel-like responses in the available data. During the first year of the project, late in 2011, consultant IOCG expert geophysicist Jim Hanneson was commissioned to undertake preliminary modelling of regional magnetic data exhibiting multiple anomalies. A range of selected anomaly source depths of between 500 m and 2000 m were calculated. Southern Geoscience Consultants were also retained during June 2011 to model seven significant regional magnetic anomalies, three of which had enough existing detailed gravity survey coverage to also permit doing gravity data inversion modelling. The source body depths derived from the gravity inversions ranged from ~300 m to >1200 m. During the second year of the project, one particular area centred 20 km north of Todmorden Homestead was investigated by UEQ because existing regional geophysical data suggested that the basement rocks there are highly disrupted, and had been thrusted upwards to within 400 m of the surface, giving rise to several interpreted coincident gravity and magnetic highs. No drilling had been done there before, and the historical gravity coverage was only an old regional gravity grid of approximately 7 km x 7 km. In May 2012, with the financial assistance of a PACE 2020 Targeting part-subsidy, a helicopter-assisted semi-regional ground gravity survey was acquired there, with readings taken at 2142 stations that were located predominantly on a 1 km x 1 km grid, with some infill readings taken at 500 m or 250 m spacing (see Env 12368 for the final report on this collaborative geophysical work). Initial examination of the new gravity data revealed at least twelve anomalies considered worthy of follow-up. A drilling programme was planned which would test five of the anomalies, and an application for another PACE 2020 Discovery Drilling subsidy grant was submitted to DMITRE, which was approved in the amount of $90,000 of co-funding. At the end of the reporting year, ELs 4653 and 4654 were fully surrendered due to their now perceived diminished prospectivity. No field work had been done on these licence areas. During the third year of the project, UEQ performed office-based target modelling before undertaking a drilling programme on ELs 4657 and 4658 which was partially funded through a PACE 2020 Discovery Drilling 2012 collaboration with the South Australian Government (to read the final report on this project, DPY7-21, see Env 12625). In January 2013, Canadian consultancy SJ Geophysics was commissioned to undertake a 3D inversion study of the Marla Project gravity dataset using the Grav3DInv code developed by the University of British Colombia's Geophysical Inversion Facility. A first inversion was carried out using the entire data set to get a general idea of the different trends, then inversions of smaller data subsets were done for the individual licence areas to get more detail in areas of interest. Six priority prospects were examined in detail – Bacup, Clough-Lydgate, Cornholm, Rochdale, Todmorden and Walsden. Around this time, a quantity of newly released open file exploration data was obtained by UEQ [ early stage releases made under the SA Mining Act Sunset Clause provisions] , including new drillhole information, geological maps, and gravity, magnetic and geochemical sampling data generated in the past ten years. The additional gravity data were used to update residual gravity anomaly images and models, and some newfound petrophysical data from recent drillhole samples were used to better constrain rock density values applied to those models. Based on this work, the current prospectivity concepts for the project were compiled during March-April 2013 for issue as a private and confidential Information Memorandum. This document also contained an historical exploration summary and the recommendations for further work in the region. It was distributed to potential corporate investors, which resulted in a new joint venture agreement being made between UEQ and Chalice Gold Mines Limited early in October 2013, to provide funds for ongoing exploration. This programme was initially going to consist of the acquisition of regional infill gravity data over specific targets. During October-December 2013, the JV partners drilled four deep holes (MMD001 – MMD004) totalling 1562.1 m. Each drillhole consisting of a rotary mud precollar section followed by a long diamond cored ‘tail’ testing the basement sequences. All of the drillholes encountered the top of basement at shallower depths than had been prognosed by geophysical modelling. Therefore it was recommended that petrophysical information should be obtained from the drill cores to inform the model parameters, and that geophysical ground surveys should be conducted to improve the anomalies' definition, prior to selecting new drill targets. While the company did achieve its objective of testing basement sequences beneath the thick and extensive cover, no firm evidence of significant IOCGU-style mineralisation and/or alteration systems was observed, although the metasediments penetrated in hole MMD004 at Todmorden prospect did have encouraging signs that a possible vein-hosted chalcopyrite ± haematite system could exist nearby, i.e. chalcopyrite instead of pyrite being the dominant sulphide mineral, and the sometimes common presence of quartz±feldspar veins that increasingly show distinct sericite alteration haloes towards the bottom of the hole at 459 m depth. Here the targeted prominent half ring-shaped feature that was observed in the aeromagnetic data images was found to arise from magnetic strata which are folded into a steep-sided antiformal dome structure. The Bacup and Rochdale prospect targets, which were based on gravity residual anomalies, appeared to be sourced from fault block edges or corners, and so were seen as being unrelated to IOCGU systems. During the fourth year of the project, in March 2014, additional (to what was reported in Env 12625) work was done on rocks from the PACE project DPY7-21 drillholes, comprising further multi-element assaying of 36 samples from the basement interval in hole MMD001, plus thin section petrological examination of four more basement drill core samples, one taken from MMD003 and three from MMD004. Next, in April 2014, a part of a helicopter-assisted infill ground gravity survey totalling 454 stations was read over the Todmorden prospect, at a grid spacing of 500 m x 500 m, closing in to 250 m x 250 m. Following receipt of the processed new gravity data, and their merging with existing gravity datasets, this target was remodelled by Southern Geoscience Consultants to create 3D inversion density shells/isosurfaces to aid visualisation of the anomalies' source bodies. Subsequently, because of facing the high costs of exploring for deeply buried IOCGU systems, and difficulties experienced with raising capital to fund ongoing exploration, a corporate decision was made in August 2014 to fully surrender all of the Marla Project tenements.