| Title | Pilot Project for Energy and Mining Economic Beneficiation from Assal (Djibouti) Geothermal and Mineral Resources |
|---|---|
| Authors | Abdi Farah Chideh |
| Year | 2006 |
| Conference | International Mineral Extraction Conference |
| Keywords | Assal; rift; geothermal; fluid; system; epithermal; energy; pool |
| Abstract | Djibouti is very small country (23 200km2) in the horn of east Africa. It is stable, politically neutral, democratically regime country. Its mining and investment policies encourage investments. The policy of the government is to provide facilities any local and foreigner investors to obtain permits/ concessions for geothermal and mining exploration and then to evaluate and develop the potentiality of the geothermal and mineral resources of the country in general and particularly in Assal area. The republic of Djibouti is located on the triple junction of the red sea, Gulf of Aden and east Africa rift. The economy up to day depends on the strategically position of Djibouti port as a centre between Europe, Africa and Asia as well as the principal railway to link Ethiopia to the sea. This exceptional geological condition of the country, as located on one of the world’s hot spot, contains numerous active hot springs and several areas favourable for geothermal energy and geothermal mineralization systems. Some of these hydrothermal systems have investigated as potential en energy and gold and base metals sources, especially in Assal area. Up to now Djibouti electric power generation depends only on the imported petroleum products and the price fluctuation in the international oil market. Exploration for geothermal energy in the Assal rift has been underway since 1970. Several deep wells were drilled and met high temperature and high enthalpy fluid production containing valuable minerals. Epithermal gold deposits with high grade near the surface are discovered in the Assal area. The Government policy is to develop energy and mineral resources of Assal as a new economic pool of the country and encourage foreigner interested investors to come and develop these resources as a complex industry for energy and minerals production. As a lot of effort and money has been spent on the geothermal exploration work at Assal, it will be our best interest to plan and build a pilot complex plant there to provide electric power and water to the region. This pilot project could also be used as a tool to train local staff for larger geothermal plants in the future. |