A licence consisting of two separate small subareas, both located in the Yunta - Nillinghoo district, was taken up to explore for possible economic stratabound iron ore (magnetite) hosted by metamorphosed Adelaidean glacial sedimentary strata of the Yudnamutana Subgroup. During licence Year 1, Thornton Metals began investigating the potential of obtaining high grade iron ore concentrates from simple extractive processing of Recent weathered clastic detrital sediments which lie in the vicinity of the target Braemar Formation outcrops. Using 'low impact' field methods, the company collected 259 selected 20 kgcreek sediment (sand) samples to test using commercially available small-scale magnetic separation equipment manufactured and sold by Eriez Magnetite Pty Ltd, to find if an iron oxide-rich concentrate could be obtained that contained >62% Fe, i.e. the lower cut-off for so-called Direct Shipping Ore that Chinese steel mills purportedly could handle. The various individual sand samples were tested for their average iron recovery, with XRF chemical analyses of the sample material being made at the collection, post - feed ore preparation (by sand sieving to give a minus 5 mm rock particle/sediment grain size fraction), tailings runoff and recovered concentrate stages of the mineral processing. The separation equipment setup parameters were modified experimentally to try to maximise the iron recovery relative to what was in each sample to begin with. After numerous tests had been completed, the following problems were apparent: (1) The separation technique used was not operationally stable, and therefore did not produce repeatable, consistent results; and (2) The recovery of magnetite on occasion was found to be <10% of the particulate iron contained in the samples. The licensee concluded that downward changes to the average world market DSO magnetite iron ore price which had commenced late in 2014, plus the demonstrated unreliability of the basic magnetic separation technology, would render the envisaged sediment mining project uneconomical to instigate over a large area. During Year 2, no new field work was done. The licensee said in its second annual report that it had hired a remote sensing innovation company called 'Solar Sonic' to demonstrate its pulsed microwave electromagnetic radiation quantum frequency analysis technology?? via conducting a 'Geoscan satellite scan' of South Australia for selected minerals, principally gold, but also including magnetite in the Olary Province. However, no report was furnished to DPC by Thornton Metals giving the outcomes of this exercise. The term of Exploration Licence (EL) 5609 ceased on 24/11/2017 in accordance with section 30A of the Mining Act 1971 (SA) (the Mining Act). [see Notes to this index record].