The placement represents a 12% discount to the volume-weighted average share price for the last 20 trading days. It was conducted by ABN AMRO Morgans and represents 3.8% of the existing issued capital. Following the issue, Geodynamics will have fully paid issues capital of 88.27 million shares. The planned issue of shares is subject to approval by an Extraordinary Meeting of shareholders planned for mid June 2005.
Geodynamics shareholders will also be invited to participate in the share capital expansion of the Company through a Share Purchase Plan (also at $1.55 per share),
details of which will be announced shortly.
The company aims to tap heat from a known geothermal hot spots in the Cooper Basin to generate zero-emission baseload electricity.
“Progress to date has significantly reduced the overall project risk [and] fully justifies our forward plans,” said Geodynamics managing director Bertus de Graaf.
So far the company has observed encouraging fracture and joint density in the target hot granites and has used hydraulic stimulation to develop an extensive underground reservoir – the largest in the world, according to de Graaf.
In addition, hydraulic connection within the target hot granites between Habanero-1 and Habanero-2 has been established, and the successful start of the reservoir testing program has demonstrated the controlled release of 10MW thermal power from the underground reservoir, he said.
“The reservoir testing program, marking the end of stage one, is expected to be completed by mid-August 2005. This is designed to lead to the establishment of a proven geothermal reserve,” de Graaf said.
Meanwhile, after successfully spinning off its uranium assets into Curnamona Energy last month, mining company Havilah Resources has now announced its entry into the latest alternative energy source to gain significant market traction - geothermal energy.
Havilah said it believes its substantial land position south of Lake Frome in South Australia covers an area of buried granite with the potential for a discovery of geothermal energy.
The company said the ground hosted the two key ingredients essential for a hot rock geothermal energy source - a large granite body with elevated levels of radioactive elements buried beneath an insulating blanket of sedimentary rocks. The exploration licence reportedly covers the main area of interpreted buried granite where depths of insulating sedimentary rocks appear to be optimal.
Havilah said the project area covers an area of 500sq.km and is well located to take advantage of existing infrastructure and power grids.
Havilah’s preliminary exploration work will involve gravity surveying followed by deeper drilling of geothermal target zones to identify reliable heat flow measurements. The company said that if results were positive it expected future exploration to follow the same course as Geodynamic’s Cooper Basin project.
