A small area centred about 15 km east of Cowell was taken up to explore the inferred 10 km long strike continuation of the banded iron formation horizon that hosts the Middleback South haematite and magnetite deposits currently being mined by OneSteel at Iron Duke. In the Kooralla area, the aeromagnetic data - interpreted target horizon is buried beneath Tertiary to Quaternary Cowell Basin sediments of unknown thickness. It was intended to resolve the depth at which the potentially economic iron mineralisation occurs, to determine if exploiting it would be viable. As well, the licensee aimed to investigate the area's potential for having possible economic basement-hosted copper-gold mineralisation of epigenetic style, analogous to that found at the Ernest Henry deposit, which may be associated with magnetic anomalies and inferred fold structures formed in the vicinity of large buried Hiltaba Suite granite plutons. Due to a discovery of minor such copper-gold mineralisation made through drilling done by the licensee Avoca Resources at the Glensea prospect on its adjacent Cowell EL 3016 to the south-east, the majority of exploration activity was concentrated there, and no significant field work other than ground-based geological reconnaissance took place on the subject licence during the period 2005-2007. After Stellar Resources farmed into the subject tenement during February 2007, looking to explore it for IOCG-U or Ernest Henry type Cu-Au mineralisation formed within basement rocks, besides any possible palaeochannel-hosted and/or basement-hosted uranium mineralisation, that company re-interpreted the available aeromagnetic data and defined a number of magnetic anomalies lying adjacent to the Charleston Granite, which are associated with regional faulting and inferred folding considered prospective for breccia hosted Cu-Au mineralisation. A single inclined diamond drillhole, COD010, that was rotary mud precollared to 81 m, was drilled by Stellar during March 2007 to test a prominent aeromagnetic target generated through interpretation of both ground gravity and aeromagnetic data. The top of basement Proterozoic metasediments was reached at 75 m depth. However, COD010 had to be abandoned prematurely at TD 150.1 m owing to drilling difficulties. 13 precollar section sludge samples were submitted for gold and uranium analysis, and 29 selected drill core samples were assayed for a wide range of elements. 6 selected samples were sent off for petrological examination. This drillhole encountered predominantly fine to medium-grained, variably altered intermediate igneous lithologies, and gneissic intrusive rocks with lesser amphibolite, beneath a thick sequence of Tertiary and Quaternary Cowell Basin sediments and fossiliferous limestone. The intrusive rocks ranged in composition from quartz diorite to potassium poor granitoids of tonalite/trondhjemite/granodiorite composition. Alteration assemblages vary but are dominated by albite and/or sericite + magnetite-epidote-biotite-amphibole-calcite-haematite-titanite-K feldspar. Sparse chalcopyrite occurs in lenses and veins with epidote, muscovite and quartz. The assays returned no significant results. Quartz-epidote-muscovite-chalcopyrite veining within altered gneissic quartz diorite / tonalite returned a maximum of 1.7 m @ 969 ppm Cu. Measured downhole magnetic susceptibility values showed a maximum of 0.137 SI units over a 2-metre interval from 119-121 m depth. Petrophysically this interval, plus other rare scattered narrow intervals of >0.1 SI units, failed to explain the large magnetic target anomaly. In view of the uncertainty as to the cause of the anomaly, it was considered necessary to acquire detailed gravity coverage in the area to properly assess the basement's IOCG prospectivity. Drill testing of any coincident magnetic-gravity or offset stand-alone gravity anomaly might then be warranted. To enhance the regional geophysical interpretation, new licence owner Rex acquired a ground gravity survey across the entire tenement during April 2008. A total of 367 stations were read by Haines Surveys along 19 lines at either 800 m x 200 m or 800 m x 400 m grid spacings. Subsequent further interpretation of the aeromagnetic data, combined with that of the newly acquired gravity data, allowed Rex to define a number of additional intra-basement anomalies considered prospective for IOCG-U type mineralisation and/or magnetite/haematite iron ore bodies. A vertical and inclined diamond drilling compaign of 6 holes for a total penetration of 1464.7 m was undertaken by Rex during July-August 2008 to investigate some of the semi-coincident magnetic/gravity anomalies. No significant mineralisation was found. Magnetite and limited quantities of haematite were encountered within weakly magnetic magnetite - banded schists and gneisses that are present below 40 to 60 m thickness of sedimentary cover, and an unidentified smoky quartz and fluorite - bearing granite was also penetrated by hole CDD003. These geological occurrences were considered by Rex to go some way towards explaining the gravity and magnetic anomalies targeted. 169 representative samples of drill cores recovered from all of the drillholes were sent for assaying, but only minor copper, gold and uranium values were returned. During 2009 Rex’s exploration priority was its Hillside Project on Yorke Peninsula, and so no new work was done on EL 3418. During January 2010, Stellar Resources undertook an regional-scale helicopter-borne EM survey (REPTEM) which included data collection along four east-west flight lines spaced 2.5 km apart within EL 3418, for 23 line km of coverage using a 35 m mean sensor elevation above ground surface. Rex then did an evaluation of this subset of the survey data to help it to determine the potential for buried secondary uranium mineralisation to occur in palaeochannels within the Tertiary Pirie Basin cover sediments. No new field work was completed during the rest of the 2009-2010 project year, owing Rex's concentration of its efforts elsewhere, viz. mainly on the Hillside IOCG deposit that it had discovered on central eastern Yorke Peninsula, where a programme of intensive orebody delineation drilling conducted over that period enabled the release of a maiden resource estimate in July 2010. During the 2010-2011 project year, Rex’s exploration effort was still directed at evaluating the Hillside copper-gold deposit (cf. the Moonta South Project ELs 3874, 3875 and 4514). Work being done there continued to focus on advancing the orebody towards production, mainly through conducting intensive drilling, with resource estimates and a conceptual mining study progressively released to the market. Consequently, exploration activity on the Cowell JV Project was reduced to a minimal level, and no new technical work was completed. For the same overriding reason, no new work was undertaken on the subject licence over the lengthy succeeding period 2011-2017, firstly while a number of mining feasibility studies involving multidisciplinary research and risk assessment were performed on Hillside that led to the grant of a mining lease there on 16/9/2014 (ML 6438), and later while the company was actively seeking funds to help it develop the deposit.