Geothermal discussion

Hi all, thought I might start a new thread to discuss the Geothermal power strategy.

Geothermal power strategy:

Firstly, thank you @andrew1401 again for sharing your email response. It wasn't clear to me, from recent announcements, whether the geothermal power strategy was to replace, or in addition to, the solar/gas hybrid power plant. I am very happy to hear that it's in addition to - and got me shallow diving into Geothermal power and DLE.

GRV has applied for 4x exploration permits for Geothermal (and minerals) in Winton, Longreach, Moura and Quilpie.

Winton already has geothermal energy plant. Proof of concept is already there, and quick research suggests that the 300kW plant (2x 150kW ORC generators) cost around $3.5m, but this seems quite high and costs could be as low as $800k.

ORC technology is being used in >600 plants worldwide (as at 2017) and geothermal makes up >75% of the installed capacity. So it is well understood and used technology. Ormat deliver the most ORC projects it seems, but gTET based in Victoria built the Winton plant.

It seems as though the research had already been done to suggest geothermal plants should be built in Longreach in Quilpie, however it never eventuated. So it makes sense for GRV to draw upon this, and will potentially make the geothermal exploration a lot faster.

I haven’t looked into RECs or ACCUs to determine potential revenue derived from these, as I’m more interested in the torbanite side of things - but with net zero emission 50% goal by 2030, and 100% by 2050 - it is reasonable to assume this could inject reasonable revenue into the project.

Lithium / DLE:

There is limited information I could find on the hydrochemistry from springs and bores from the artesian basin, but what I could find was some information collected in NSW. The grades returned around 0.01mg/L - 0.36mg/L of lithium. I think the temperature of samples collected were between 30-50C.

So, whilst I don't think these grades are significant enough to hold our breath over - the depths, temperatures and regions of these samples vary significantly to what NB and MH are looking at in Winton, Longreach, Moura and Quilpie.

For comparison the grades returned from VUL in Germany were 180mg/L - 214mg/L of lithium.

Final thoughts & SP:

It has been disheartening to see what is happening with the SP, but when I look back on over 3 decades of investing and with nearly all of my 20x, 30x or 50x + experiences I have learned the following:

20-50x + returns all took >5 years

Many of them saw 50% declines in SP, often more than once, on the way to providing spectacular (and genuinely life-changing) returns, similar to what we are experiencing now

The stock market is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient

I was going to provide a quick recap for the Torbanite component of the Alpha project, as well as Georgina, but it's fairly easy to find in announcements. Suffice to say, when Alpha gets to production I think it's reasonable to expect a share price of above $2.50. NB this does not include REC, ACCUs, or potential lithium, or a hit at Georgina.

There are people on these forums who have a lot more insight and brains than I do, so please share your opinions or thoughts. Hoping to hear arguments for and against.

WST