Panax Geothermal/ Petratherm JV receiving first payments of drilling grants
Panax Geothermal Limited, as well Petratherm (ASX:PTR) and JV partners Beach Petroleum (ASX:BPT) and TRUenergy Geothermal have received the first two milestone payments for Salamander-1/ Penola (Panax) and the Paralana Project (Petratherm) relating to its Geothermal Drilling Program (“GDP”) grant from the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.
The $7m Geothermal Drilling Program grant will assist in funding the two-well HEWI proof of concept work.
The grants were awarded in April 2009 to Panax for drilling Salamander-1 near Penola and the two well HEWI proof of concept work of Petratherm at Paralana.
The payment this week was for AU$2.45m. An additional AU$1.75m is expected to be awarded in late September or early October.
The Federal Government announced the AU$50m program in August last year to help begin making geothermal technology viable for baseload energy production.
Source: Announcement for Panax (The Border Watch), Announcement for Petratherm JV (iStockAnalyst)