OTHER PROJECTS

Project Pipeline

Torrens Energy continued its aggressive land acquisition strategy through the 2009 year, currently holding 27 granted GELs over five project areas in South Australia for 12,037km² and one licence in Victoria for a national total of 21,681km².

The Company aims to deliver a pipeline of geothermal resources, by applying its unique 3D-TFM methodology, further refined by seismic and intermediary test drilling, to bring targets to deep drill-ready status.

With its pipeline strategy being successfully implemented, and with downstream partner AGL Energy ready to receive development proposals, the Company is continuing to advance its strategic positions in South Australia.   The diagram below shows the Company's projects at various stages of progression.

Adelaide Project

The Adelaide Project consists of five GELs totaling 1,790 km². As with projects to the north, the targets are thick insulating sedimentary sequences of the Torrens Hinge Zone. Existing data on the subsurface geology is limited. The project area is adjacent to the coast and extends southward to the northern suburbs of Adelaide itself, where it directly abuts the precinct of the gas-fired Torrens Island Power Station owned by AGL. Much of the Northern Adelaide Plains Project area is flat rural land.

Torrens Energy therefore has a strategic position on the coast next to a major city. The coastal location gives access to seawater which can be used as a coolant in future power stations.

There is likely to be 3,500 to 5,000m of sedimentary cover overlying heat producing basement rocks. Torrens has estimated heat flows from existing shallow drillholes in the area. Immediately south of the Project area heat flows lie in a narrow range between 80 and 100 mW/m². Temperature modeling based on available data indicates that temperatures around 200ºC may exist at a depth of 5,000 meters.

The future work program will determine the three-dimensional geological framework, and detail the heat flow in the Project area. The targeted insulating sedimentary rocks are covered by 200–400m of geologically recent sediments of the Saint Vincent Basin. To interpret the geological framework, existing seismic data will be reprocessed, and new seismic data collected. Existing drillholes will be assessed for temperature data, and a programme of new core drilling will be undertaken to precisely determine the heat flow regime.

Barossa-Clare Project

Four GELs of the Barossa-Clare Project total 2,000 km². Uranium occurrences in the Barossa Complex within the Adelaide Fold Belt make this area geothermally prospective. This project targets the insulating sedimentary rocks that overlie the heat-producing Barossa Complex at depth. These insulators include siltstones and mudstones of the Saddleworth and Tapley Hill Formations. Torrens Energy has undertaken thermal conductivity measurements on core samples from some sedimentary units in the area which indicate good insulating properties.

This Project is also located within infrastructure and services, including the national power grid.