the australian

Good article in the Australian today.

Criterion

Green Rock Energy (GRK) 12c

THE hot rocker has taken a further step towards the holy grail -- endless renewable power from superheated water from the bowels of the earth -- with a glowing assessment of its Olympic Dam hot-rock play.

According to the US geothermal consultancy GeothermEx, Green Rock's site has a potential power capacity of up to 7.6 megawatts per well. In laybloke's terms: the rocks are hot enough and have the right properties to generate power.

"That's a pretty good indication of what we can achieve," Green Rock chief Adrian Larking says. "We have ticked all the boxes at Olympic Dam, bar one."

The unticked box? "The only thing we have to do now is to drill deep wells and prove we can flow water through hot rocks at a sustainable rate ... that is where the project risk is."

It's no small risk, in that the hot-rock process is yet to be proved anywhere in the world. A French project is close to pilot production, while locally Queensland's Geodynamics is closest to proving the concept.

Criterion always has time for Green Rock because we tipped the stock as a speculative buy at 5.5c on May 3, after which the stock soared to a June peak of 21c before being dumped.

We maintain that call. Even though Green Rock recovered by 3.2c, or 36 per cent, yesterday it's still one of the cheapest hot-rock plays (market cap $17 million).

Green Rock's obvious customer is BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine, which is slated for expansion.

Green Rock also has secondary hot-rock projects in Hungary, which could be bought to fruition more quickly and thus produce short-term cash flow.

Cash-wise, Green Rock has $1million or so in the bank and will need to return to the market, but expects a $1.4 million payment from the World Bank in relation to the Hungary project.
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