The company said the well will evaluate the hot rock potential of the Paralana Plains Area, east of the Mount Painter Ranges, where exceptionally high heat producing granites are known to occur.

Petratherm said it was encouraged by recently acquired down hole temperature readings from shallow mineral exploration drill holes (170-200 metres) in the adjacent area. These indicated a highly elevated temperature gradient in the shallow sedimentary sequence.

“This is encouraging for the prospect of finding elevated subsurface temperatures in Paralana-1,” the company said in a statement.

The well will be drilled through the artesian aquifer, estimated at around 500 metres, and into underlying rock sequence. A total depth of around 600 metres is projected for the first phase of drilling of Paralana-1.

Petratherm anticipates the well will take two weeks to drill, after which the temperature logging will be undertaken.

On completion the hole will be cased with PVC piping and back-cemented to isolate the artesian flow. Then down-hole temperature gradient and rock physical property measurements will be undertaken to assess the geothermal potential.

Projections of the temperature gradient will be made to the target depth of around 3.5km, Petratherm’s modelled target depth for a significant, economic, geothermal resource.

“If encouraging, the hole will be deepened at a later date, using a larger capacity drilling rig, to about 1500 metres to gain further temperature, rock physical property and stress measurements to confirm the subsurface model established in the first phase of drilling,” Petratherm said.

“If there is a significant geothermal resource at Paralana the initial two step evaluation drilling (Paralana-1) program will identify and quantify this potential resource prior to the commitment of higher cost deep drilling into the thermal resource.”