Mokuti to buy Green Rock, Perilya

WEST-PERTH based Mokuti Mining’s shareholders have approved the transactions to acquire Green Rock Energy Pty Ltd and Perilya Geothermal Energy Pty Ltd, which jointly own geothermal energy licences over 2,200 square kilometres in the Olympic Dam area in South Australia. Both Green Rock and Perilya will retain 18.5 per cent of Mokuti as part of the $6.8 million scrip deal. Shareholders have also agreed to change the name of the company to Green Rock Energy Limited, on completion of the acquisition, which was struck on December 22 last year. Mokuti managing director Adrian Larking said funds to be raised, together with existing cash reserves, would enable the company to implement its plans to recover geothermal energy from the Olympic Dam geothermal licences. Up to four holes will be drilled into granitic rocks that are known from nearby WMC drilling to be ‘anomalously hot’, he said. Green Rock and Perilya have awarded a contract to the drilling company Boart Long-year to drill between 1.5 and 2km of depth in each hole. Mr Larking said in a statement that, depending on the success of the four holes, it was the intention of the company to drill the first geothermal energy well in 2006. "Based on existing information the first geothermal energy well could be drilled to about five kilometres depth to tap the hotter temperatures required to generate electricity commercially," he said. At the general meeting held on March 30, shareholders: agreed to issue 15 million shares and 15 million performance shares to the vendors; ratified a placement of three million shares at an issue price of 20 cents each; approved a further placement of two million shares at an issue price of 20 cents each; re-elected Adrian Larking as a director; and elected Alan Knights as a director, who joins the board from Perilya, where he is chief financial officer.