Sydney, Apr 28, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - KUTh Energy (ASX: KEN) is pleased to announce that it has received the first batch of equilibrated surface heat flow values from drilling on its Tasmanian geothermal tenement, SEL26/2005.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Surface heat flow values of between 92 and 96 milliWatts per square metre (mW/m2) returned from the first 4 drill holes of KUTh's drilling programme;
- These values fall within the top 17% of heat flow values recorded for Australia in the Global Heat Flow Database and are within the range commonly reported from the Cooper Basin;
- The reported values are the first to come from KUTh's tenement-wide drilling programme. To date, 16 holes have been completed and the programme is on-going.
As equilibrium is reached in the more recent drill holes, temperature and conductivity measurements will be made and this will allow the calculation and reporting of further surface heat flow values.
The reported holes were left to equilibrate for at least 3 months from the end of drilling to the time of down-hole thermal measurement.
Measurements and the calculation of surface heat flows were undertaken by Hot Dry Rocks Pty Ltd (HDRPL), KUTh's geothermal consultant on the programme.
HDRPL report that this range of surface heat flows recorded from KUTh's tenement in eastern Tasmania lie in the top 17% of values for all of Australia found in the Global Heat Flow Database and are within the range of values commonly reported from the Cooper Basin.
"KUTh's model for geothermal energy from eastern Tasmania has been confirmed and enhanced," KUTh's Chief Operating Officer, Malcolm Ward said today.
"We have outcropping known hot granites to the north and east of the project area and geophysical evidence that granites continue south and west under between two and six km of insulating cover. Now we have confirmation of strong, consistent surface heat flows from approximately 1,200km2. This is a large area and although further anomalous areas may be defined we are already planning follow-up drilling to further test this zone."
The values for the reported holes are as follows:
Hole ID Location Surface
(GDA94) heat flow#
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Northing Easting mW/m2
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Snow 1 5,358,389 572,873 92.0
Lake Leake 1 5,338,586 568,510 92.0
Elizabeth 1 5,356,701 549,501 94.0
Tooms 1 5,319,894 567,354 96.0
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All drill holes are vertical
# Values have an average error margin of +/- 2.5 mW/m2,
considered a low error margin
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