The company immediately announced it would drill its maiden well early in the fourth quarter to a total depth of 600-700m. The well, to be sunk on the company’s Callabonna or Paralana acreage in South Australia, will test the thermal gradient in the sequence above the targeted heat source and enable the temperature of the heat source to be reliably determined.

"A final decision will be made shortly on which tenement will be drilled first but we plan to drill one well on each of our three areas," said Petratherm's chief executive officer Peter Reid.

With a third tenement nearby and north of Olympic Dam, all three Petratherm tenements are in a zone thought to contain hot rocks at 8-25 times the heat generating capacity of most granites.

"We will have a gravity crew on the ground shortly to complete a detailed survey prior to final site selection for what will be one of Australia's first wells drilled specifically as part of a hot rocks exploration strategy," Reid said.

"The results of the wells will be used to determine the temperature and other characteristics of potential hot rock sources at depth.

"Results from this one-well-a-block strategy could determine whether Petratherm has a viable hot rock energy resource ahead of drilling the target at depth for delineation purposes and ultimately production of heat into a power generation plant."

Petratherm plans to locate hot rocks close to market and at relatively shallow depths, which are key economic drivers behind geothermal energy.

Following a successful $4 million capital raising, Petratherm joined the ASX with 35 million ordinary 20 cent shares on issue and 473 shareholders, including parent company and major shareholder Minotaur Resources(42.9%).

The company is also applying for a $4 million Federal Government research grant.