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:

v     The Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy (GBC) at the University of Nevada, Reno,

v     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

v     Apollo Gold, Corporation, owner/operator of the Florida Canyon Mine.

Objectives: (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.

WELL LOG SUMMARIES

To obtain a Word document containing detailed summaries of these five wells, click on

Exploratory Drill Program to Evaluate the Lifetime and Current Potential of the Florida Canyon Geothermal System, Pershing County, Nevada

Between May and July, 2003, the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy successfully drilled and completed five research wells located near the Florida Canyon Mine.  These wells were funded by the U.S. Department of Energy grant to UNR in collaboration with Presco Energy and Apollo Gold. All wells were 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.

WELLS

Sec. 32, T32N, R33E. Well P32-2 cored interbedded siliceous sinter and lacustrine deposits from surface to total depth of 500 ft. Samples from this core will be used for detailed geochemical, geochronological and petrographic analyses.

Sec 10, T31N, R33E – 1000 feet of core were recovered from the 1500 foot P10-1 well. Numerous fractures with silica cement and siliceous zones have been observed in the core. Analyses will be conducted on the core to determine the geochemical characteristics of fluids that have reacted with the rock during different time periods.

Sec. 3, T31N, NENE Sec. 5, T31N, NENE Sec32, T32N, R33E – These three wells (P3-1, P5-1, and P32-1) have been drilled as temperature gradient boreholes. They have been drilled to a total depth of 1000 ft per well to provide data from below shallow geothermal plumes to determine whether the surface feature and shallow temperatures are artifacts of a single lateral discharge plume or individual parallel faults each hosting separate geothermal discharge cells. Wells P5-1 and P32-1 have been rotary drilled to 1000 ft. Well P3-1 was rotary drilled to 651 feet before losing circulation into a fractured zone. To achieve the projected total depth of 1000 feet following lost circulation, the well was cored from 651 feet to 1000 feet total depth.

GAMMA-RAY AND TEMPERATURE LOGS