Project Title: Exploratory Drilling Program to Evaluate the Lifetime and Current Potential of the Florida Canyon Geothermal System, Pershing County

Project PI's: Dr. Gina Tempel, Associate Professor, Department of Geological Sciences (PI); Dr. Lisa Shevenell, Research Hydrogeologist, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (co-PI), Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy, University of Nevada, Reno.

Industry Partners: Presco Energy, Englewood, CO; Columbia Geoscience, Hillsboro, OR; Apollo Gold Corporation, Florida Canyon Mine, Imlay, NV.

University/Industry Partnership
This project involves a partnership between:

The Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy (GBC) at the University of Nevada, Reno,
Presco Energy, owner/operator of the Rye Patch geothermal power plant, and their independent contractor Al Waibel (Columbia Geoscience) who has extensive experience and knowledge of the geology of the area, and
Apollo Gold, Corporation, owner/operator of the Florida Canyon Mine.

The objectives of this partnership are: (1) to develop geothermal resources within the Humboldt House geothermal area (HHGA); (2) to use the HHGA as a model system for geothermal research; (3) to develop new methods to evaluate the lifetime and resource potential of geothermal systems in general; and (4) to study the evolution of a fossil hydrothermal system to a modern geothermal system.

Progress to date:
From May to July, 2003, we successfully drilled and completed the five wells that were proposed by this project. All wells have been completed as temperature gradient wells at the following depths, one well to 500 feet, three wells to 1000 feet, and one well to 1500 feet. A total of 1850 feet of core was obtained from three wells.

The five wells are currently being monitored quarterly for temperature, and the cores are being studied using geochemical and petrographic techniques at the University of Nevada, Reno.