A substantial part of the central and southern Adelaide Hills, in the vicinity of the margins of Archaean basement inliers, was taken up by a Tennant Creek (NT) - based gold mining company to explore for possible buried economic gold and base metal hydrothermal mineralisation, the impetus being a number of locally quite rich documented ore occurrences within historic shallowly-worked mines, that gave evidence of potentially deeper and untested vein systems. Activity commenced in the north of the licenced area (on SML 47) with prospecting for Tertiary gold placer deposits that might be remnant at old goldfields. This met with no success, as all of the ground had clearly been thoroughly worked-over. Shallow diamond drilling to look for subsurface extensions to the rich German Reef on the Mount Pleasant Goldfield (4 holes totalling 533 feet 6 inches) intersected only low grade gold in two quartz veins cut by DDH2. An EM survey run between shaft positions at the Black Snake gold mine yielded a poor anomaly. Soil and rock chip geochemical sampling carried out over a grid in the south of the licenced area (on SML 48) near Kuitpo Colony (> 2300 samples taken at 100 feet x 500 feet spacing) located a promising copper anomaly near Blackfellow Creek, to the north of the old Mount Monster mine. This anomaly was tested by three diamond drillholes totalling 1130 feet, which encountered a magnetite-bearing biotite gneiss overlying albitised granite. The subsurface disposition of the magnetite-rich horizons was then mapped using ground magnetics, with inconclusive results, so additional gravity and refraction seismic surveys were run which satisfactorily delineated drilling targets in the Archaean basement, albeit concealed beneath some thickness of Permian glacial till. A further four diamond holes totalling 707 feet were then drilled near Hope Forest. This drilling outlined two ore zones within quartz-magnetite gneiss, carrying 5-15% disseminated pyrite and less than 1% chalcopyrite. The total iron content of these zones was shown to range from 28.9% to 46.0%. The intensity of the Cu mineralisation in DDH5 appeared to increase four-fold over the 160 feet interval between the Palaeozoic/basement unconformity and the hole's total depth. Traces of gold up to 5 dwt Au were recovered from panning samples of the adjacent outcropping quartz reefs. Reconnaissance soil geochemical surveys were next carried out over aeromagnetic anomalies at Mount Monster and Mount Effie, and in the vicinity of old copper workings located 4 miles south of Normanville. Some promising elongate copper / lead / zinc / bismuth / molybdenum soil anomalies were delineated near Mount Monster, extending southerly for two miles at the eastern margin of the Archaean inlier, near the unconformity with basal Proterozoic metasediments. These were diamond drilled (3 holes totalling 1129 feet 8 inches) but yielded very disappointing results, with all holes finishing in granite after transecting gneisses that contain sporadic minor sulphide mineralisation similar to that seen in the basement at Hope Forest. A discrete Cu-Ag-Mo soil anomaly found when sampling along the hilltop at Mount Effie was further profiled with infill samples and coverage was extended into the Wild Dog Creek area. In January 1965 an aeromagnetic anomaly at Mount Compass, which has associated with it moderately high soil Cu values overlying 125-150 feet thick Permian fluvioglacial valley fill sediments and inferred steeply easterly dipping Archaean basement, was surveyed for ADNL by the SA Dept of Mines Geophysics Section using ground magnetic, gravity and seismic refraction methods. The surveys confirmed the presence of juxtaposed magnetic and gravity anomalies approximately 1000 feet wide which have a source body centred 550-650 feet below the surface. McPhar Geophysics were then also engaged to test the site using IP methods. Their interpreted results suggested that sulphide mineralisation would be virtually absent in the basement here, and that the required deep drilling, except to target a magnetite orebody, was not warranted. The licensee decided not to pursue investigating this basement anomaly, and at licence renewal a short time later, it relinquished the corresponding portion of SML 75. The Normanville and Yankalilla parts of the licence were also relinquished in November 1965. Following a review of the IP survey results, three anomalies were identified that might possibly be indicative of buried metal mineralisation lying to the south of the zone of surface geochemical anomalism drilled previously. A single inclined diamond drillhole (DDH1S to 324 feet 9 inches) was put down on the best IP anomaly. The recovered drill core contained disseminated, but once again only minor and uneconomic base metal sulphides, mainly chalcopyrite (bulk core assay values ranged from 0.02-0.15% Cu), within sillimanite-garnet gneisses having a steeply dipping foliation that strikes approximately north-south. A dolerite dyke was encountered at 300 feet depth in this hole. The observed IP effect here was attributed largely to the presence of graphite at many horizons. Due to the repeated lack of encouragement for finding good grades of copper sulphides or precious metals in the Archaean basement rocks, it was decided in April 1966 to surrender the licence.