It said pressure measurements had clearly established the reservoir in the target hot granites is hydraulically connected between Habanero-1 and Habanero-2, a horizontal distance of 500m.

The connection was established following the intersection of the major hydraulically stimulated zone in Habanero #2 at 4,325m (14,186ft).

The company said it still had to determine the reservoir impedance or the amount of pumping energy required for a certain flow rate and the total surface area exposed to the circulating fluid to determine the life of the underground heat exchanger.

It was going to test these late next month and if minimum requirements aren’t met, Geodynamics said it was expected that reservoir performance can be enhanced through additional hydraulic stimulation.

Habanero-2 was currently fishing out 245 metres of drill pipe left downhole which was expected to take a few days.

”Establishing connection between the two wells is considered to be a major project milestone. We are now getting close to achieving what we set out to do when we listed just over two years ago, namely the economic extraction of heat for the generation of zero emission baseload electricity from the target hot granites in the Cooper Basin,” said managing director Bertus de Graaf.

“The reservoir testing program, scheduled to commence in the second half of November, should provide the answers to the remaining questions. This program is also designed to test for the presence of a large natural (artesian) geothermal province.