Craton's powerful potential

Adelaide Advertiser
Wednesday 3/6/2009 Page: 58

SA-BASED exploration company Southern Gold has "strong confidence" in the geothermal potential of its Gawler Craton site as it moves to stage two of development at its Roxby project. The progress follows the announcement of a 260,000 petajoule resource at the renamed Roxby Geothermal Project, formerly called the Torrens Project.

The hot rocks resource covers about 5% of the total area of the Roxby project and lies directly in the path of high-voltage power lines linking Olympic Dam and the Prominent Hill copper mine with the electricity hub at Port Augusta.Southern Gold managing director Stephen Biggins said development strategies to secure the site's commercial potential would include logging temperatures in deep drill holes.

"The initial resource estimate positions Southern Gold to apply for the next stage of Federal funding under the Government's $50 million Geothermal Drilling Program," he said. "Having reliable power supplies generated close by should provide a significant boost for mining projects proposed in the region."