Early in 2012, explorer NiCul Minerals Limited (NiCul) sought PACE Initiative funding from the South Australian Government to help it undertake a programme of stratigraphic and targeted mineral exploration drilling within EL 3931 Woodroffe and EL 4587 Cooperinna, which cover parts of the central Musgrave Province in South Australia. These adjacent but remote licence areas are located in the Mann Ranges on the freehold APY Lands, approximately 450 km south-west of Alice Springs. EL 3931 (Woodroffe) is held by Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Limited, but is presently being managed by NiCul under a farm-in option agreement, and EL 4587 is 100% held by NiCul. The objective of the proposed drilling programme was to assess the potential of basement rocks in these areas to host magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE sulphide mineralisation attributed to the mid-Proterozoic Giles Complex mafic/ultramafic intrusive event, and also any economic occurrences of base and precious metals that might be associated with the older basement high grade metamorphic strata of the Birksgate Complex. It was hoped that the planned programme of extensive diamond drill core recovery and logging would give needed contributions to the slowly evolving mineral industry knowledge base about the geological and lithological characteristics of the generally poorly exposed Birksgate and Giles Complex rocks in this region. As part of South Australia’s Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) 2020 – Discovery Drilling 2012 collaborative funding offer, NiCul was awarded $100,000 from DMITRE to help subsidise the drilling cost that would be incurred under the approved work programme. The Deed of Conditions of Grant applicable to the subject PACE Project DPY7-15 was executed by the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy and NiCul on 21/6/2013. To assist with mapping prospective subsurface geological structures, the Central Musgrave Project joint venture partners had previously applied for and received collaborative PACE 2020 Targeting part-subsidy funding for conducting a high-resolution, deep-seeking calibrated airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey using the newly developed Super High Moment SkyTEM system, which when it was completed during April 2012 was this new geophysical method's first application to mineral exploration in the Musgrave Province (see Env 12365). From the resulting AEM data a number of interpreted bedrock conductors were identified, modelled and ranked, and possible drill sites were recommended to test them. To begin the subject PACE project, shallow prospect-scale vacuum drilling was undertaken by NiCul during mid-February to end of April 2013 across a number of geophysical targets, to investigate and identify any regolith geochemical anomalism within the veneer of colluvial and aeolian sand covering the crystalline basement rocks. 225 vertical holes were drilled for a total penetration of 3391 m, using the company's 4WD tractor-mounted rig. The holes were spaced at 100-metre intervals along profile fence lines, or else were arrayed over a detailed prospect grid. Individual hole depths varied from very shallow (<0.9 m) to a maximum of 37.2 m (limit of rig), but mostly averaged 15 m. Regolith sample assay values to maxima of 480 ppm Ni, 350 ppm Cu and 280 ppm Co were obtained from two separate prospects (Alma and Cactus). All of NiCul's proposed diamond drilling for DPY7-15 was undertaken using its parent PepinNini‘s company-owned Boart Longyear LF90D rig. Each borehole was commenced as rotary mud drilling, using a 150 mm tricone bit to the depth where competent rock was encountered. The hole was then cased with 100 mm diameter class-9 PVC. Following this, HQ core drilling was undertaken to a depth below where weathering of the basement influenced the permeability and competency of the bedrock. The diamond drill bit size was then reduced and NQ2 coring was continued for the remainder of the hole. Coring was undertaken through the hard rock using a 3 m barrel for both HQ and NQ2 drilling. Orientation of the core was undertaken during drilling using a conventional orientation spear method every 4 to 6 drill runs (12-18 m). One only stratigraphic diamond hole, DD12HKN001, was drilled on EL 3931 during May 2012, to test a conductivity feature located on the eastern side of the Hanging Knoll mafic intrusive body. This inclined drillhole, the deepest attempted with a TD of 422.92 m, encountered a sequence of gabbro to gabbronorite lithologies. A zone of weakly sulphidic gabbroic breccia was intersected between 240-252 m depth, which NiCul thinks is is likely to represent the source of the conductivity response. The sulphides occur as sparse intercumulate disseminations dominated by pyrrhotite. Next, in several rig move stages over the period June 2012 to June 2013, another thirteen diamond holes with a total penetration of 2742.56 m were drilled at sites selected as follows, to investigate conductivity targets and the nature of concealed strata on the eastern and western sides of the Deering Hills within the Cooperinna EL area: - four diamond holes (DD12COP007-009 and DD12COP013) were drilled at the Byron prospect to test conductivity features associated with a discrete magnetic anomaly. Targeting was planned on the recommendations of geophysical consultants to test modelled conductive plates derived from the SkyTEM508 survey line data. The first two holes intersected sulphidic breccia along the margins of an essentially gabbroic body. The sulphide occurrences dominated by pyrrhotite were sufficient to source the modelled targets. The third hole failed to intersect a conclusive conductive source, but did transition through a discordant intrusive margin zone and sufficient gabbroic units and textures to reinforce the interpretation that these mafic lithologies are part of the Giles Complex. A fourth hole was drilled to provide an orthogonal intersection through the intrusive margin. - three holes (DD12COP010-012) were completed at the Byron South prospect to test discrete conductivity anomalies identified within the SkyTEM508 data. The EM anomalies were all modelled as moderately dipping plates proximal to discrete magnetic features. - one hole, DD12COP014, was completed at the Bondi prospect to test a well defined EM anomaly identified and modelled from the VTEM survey. The target is located along the northern margin of a 1000 m x 250 m magnetic feature and is proximal to weak nickel and copper anomalism identified within broad spaced vacuum soil drilling. - one diamond hole, DD12COP015, was completed at the Yagen prospect to test an EM target identified and modelled from the VTEM survey, which is located proximal to a broad zone of low level nickel and copper vacuum soil geochemical anomalism. - three holes (DD12COP016 and DD13COP017-018) were drilled at the Venus prospect to investigate the source of magnetic and EM responses associated with areas of possible mafic regolith geochemistry recognised during earlier regional vacuum soil drilling. One hole was completed to test the source of the magnetic low response in the northern part of the prospect, and two holes were designed to test the coincident EM response and intense magnetic “contact” gradient in the southern part of the prospect. - one diamond drill hole, DD13COP019, was drilled at the Alma prospect to test an EM anomaly in an area where close-spaced vacuum drilling results had suggested that mineralised mafic lithologies might be present under colluvium and aeolian sand cover. No economic mineralisation was encountered in any of the fourteen PACE diamond drillholes. Minor disseminated sulphides, comprising between 1% and 3% (and rarely up to 15%, as thin stringer veins in places at the Hanging Knoll and Byron prospects) of the rock mass in brecciated Birksgate Complex country rocks, were logged near the contacts with presumed Giles Complex mafic bodies. The sulphide is predominantly pyrrhotite, with some visible chalcopyrite and pyrite; pentlandite is present only rarely in the DD12COP008 core from Byron prospect, where it occurs within a few semi-massive intercumulate sulphide blebs. The majority of rock material cored is garnetiferous felsic to intermediate to mafic granulite orthogneiss of the Birksgate Complex, which becomes quite graphitic within inferred shear zones, thus accounting for the targeted EM anomalism. The occurrence in several holes of narrow, fabric-discordant intervals of sulphidic and xenolithic brecciation, grading internally to gabbro, pyroxenite and strongly graphitic banded gneiss zones, leads NiCul to suspect that these intervals represent "failed" points of intrusion of Giles mafic magma into pre-existing structural breaks within the Birksgate host - this scenario is particularly evident in the drill cores recovered from the Yagen and Alma prospects.