LESSONS LEARNED IN DRILLING DB-1 AND DB-2 BLUE MOUNTAIN, NEVADA

The second stratigraphic test well, DB-2, drilled at the Blue Mountain Geothermal Project 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of Winnemucca, Nevada, was successfully completed on April 29, 2004. The hole was drilled under a cost sharing agreement between Noramex Corp. and the US DOE under the GRED II program to explore the geothermal resource to the west of Blue Mountain in an area previously explored for gold. Noramex drilled DB-1, the first deep stratigraphic test well, to 672.1 meters (2205 feet) in 2002. DB-1 intersected economic temperatures of 145°C (292.5°F) at a depth of 645 m (2115 ft). DB-1 had lost circulation and indications from the temperature survey of high permeability in the almost 366 m (1200 ft) of hole with high temperatures. DB-2 encountered higher temperatures, 167°C (333°F) at 585.2 m (1920 ft), also with good indication of permeability from lost circulation and from the temperature surveys from 201.17 m (660 ft) to bottom.