Chile grants Magma Energy second geothermal exploration permit

5 May 2010

Canadian geothermal company Magma Energy has been issued an exploration permit by the Chilean government enabling it to develop a 50MW geothermal operation on the 4,000 hectare Laguna del Maule property, 300km south of Santiago.

The property adjoins the company’s existing 100,000 hectare Pellado property and together they encompass the Mariposa Geothermal Reservoir on which Magma previously reported a 320MW inferred resource.

Magma is currently drilling the second of five slim holes wells, with a targeted depth of 1,500 metres, into the Mariposa Reservoir, which is located near two planned hydro power plants and associated transmission lines. The first well drilled in 2009 discovered temperatures greater than 200°C at a depth of approximately 650 meters, the company said.

The 2010 slim hole programme that began in March is expected to conclude by December 2010 at a cost of $15m.

Magma said that drilling results will provide sufficient information for it to complete a more detailed evaluation of the planned 150MW geothermal power plant.

Dr Catherine Hickson, vice president of Magma, said, ‘This geothermal exploitation permit will enable us to proceed directly to construction of our operating plant once we complete our drilling programme and studies on detailed capital and operating costs and environmental impacts.’

Magma Energy operates, develops, explores and acquires geothermal energy projects throughout the west US, Iceland and Latin America.

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Tags: geothermal

This story was published on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 6:17 pm and is filed under North America, companies, geothermal. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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