Frome Project Exploration Undertaken by Geothermal Resources

Geothermal Resources has undertaken a number of exploration projects for the purpose of harnessing geothermal energy. The current projects of the company are the Frome project (Curnamona Craton) and Penola-Robe project (South East SA).

The Frome project undertaken by Geothermal Resources covers a total area of about 5000 square kilometres (consisting of 10 exploration licences). This project is situated in the Frome basin in North East SA. Intrusive basement rocks and radiogenic Precambrian volcanic rocks are found in this region too. The exploration of this region concentrates on a hot fractured rock (HFR) that is found within the Precambrian granites.

The drill holes, Frome 2, 3 and 9, in the Frome project, developed by Geothermal Resources, have been explored in the last two years and have found gradients in very high temperatures. In Frome 12, it was found that the bottom most 290 meters was completely granite core that proved that there was an occurrence of sub-horizontal fracturing. According to seismic data, it can be inferred that the 1.5 meters of granite above this is horizontally fractured. This would be very helpful and is in fact essential for the purpose of hydro-fracturing.