Bluestone Resources plans flow-tests for Mita geothermal project in Guatemala

Cerro Blanco gold project, Guatamala (source: Bluestone Resources)

Alexander Richter 20 Feb 2018

In an interview with Minerals publication MetalsNews, John Robbins, Exectuive Chairman of Bluestone Resources provides details on current exploration and development of his company’s high-grade gold and geothermal projects.

The company is advancing its Cerro Blanco Gold project and the Mita geothermal project, both located in Guatemala, Central America.

The Mita geothermal project, has a 50-year license to build and operate a 50 MW geothermal power plant. The company will announce in the next few months on drilling activities and a possible production decision within the next 12 months.

Both projects are located close to each other and make this an interesting cross-development project. While in the beginning, when the company bought the gold project and the geothermal project came along, there was not that much value given. But the company now shows some real interest in this geothermal asset. Goldcorp, the previous owner, had invested around $60 million into the geothermal project, a bit more than one-fourth of the overall investment in the gold and geothermal projects on site. The company had drilled several wells and done some infrastructure work. Essentially, so John Ribbons, the company “substantially de-risked it from a production standpoint.”

So far though, these wells were not adequately flow tested and Bluestone Resources is now planning to flow tests the drilled wells, hoping to get some better understanding of the actual potential capacity of the geothermal project. So with the geothermal project, the actual gold project could be powered by a renewable energy source nearby hold by the same developer. There is a strong believe that just the geothermal project alone could be commercially viable. The gold project would require around 12 MW in power generation capacity, so that will be interesting.

Source: MetalsNews