The South Bangemall and Havelock Projects are located within the Mesoproterozoic Edmund Basin, which forms part of the Bangemall Supergroup (formerly Bangemall Basin). The Edmund Basin developed between approximately 1,640 million years and 1,000 million years during the Capricorn Orogen. This Orogen comprises overlapping sedimentary basins along the northern margin of the Yilgarn Craton and southern margin of the Pilbara Craton. Deformation of these sedimentary basins correlates with the formation of metamorphic and igneous terranes of the Gascoyne and Ashburton Complexes.

The structural development of the Edmund Basin was controlled by major lineaments or fault systems that reflect pre-existing, underlying basement structures. The Flint Hill and Tangadee lineaments are northeast trending structures that merge with an arcuate, east trending fault that forms the southern margin of the Pingandy Shelf. East to southeast trending faults between the Flint Hill and Tangadee lineaments formed horst and graben structures during the early development of the basin, and controlled the development of early-formed basins such as the Jillawarra Sub-basin.

The Jillawarra Sub-basin is preserved as a 65 kilometre long and 10 kilometre wide belt and is regarded as an isolated early-formed rift basin. Basement is exposed as schist and granitoid in the cores of the Woodlands and Coobarra Domes. Sediments within the Jillawarra Sub-basin are organic carbonate and clastic sediments of the Irregully Formation, interpreted as representing deposition in a lagoonal to shallow marine setting. These basins were superseded by a basin-wide sheet sandstone, the Kiangi Creek Formation. Continued sedimentation resulted in deposition of sequences of mudstone, siltstone intercalated with limestone, sandstone, conglomerate and chert. Numerous dolerite sills intrude the middle to upper levels of the Edmund Basin.