Reported by Wall Street Journal, “Chile’s Mining Ministry has received bids from nine companies for 19 geothermal exploration concessions expected to attract total investment of around $120 million.

A total of 59 bids were received from the nine companies, which included local and foreign firms, the ministry said on its Web site.

Twenty exploration concessions were offered in June, but one concession was declared void, newspaper El Mercurio reported.

Bidders included Chilean power generator Colbun (COLBUN.SN), state oil and gas company Empresa Nacional del Petroleo, or Enap, in partnership with Italian utility Enel SpA (ENEL.MI), Canadian firm Magma Energy Corp. (MXY.T), and Australia’s Hot Rock Ltd. (HRL.AU), the paper reported.

The Ministry expects investments of up to $3 million in each of the concessions spread throughout the country from north to south, covering a total area of 766,800 hectares.

The government wants to tap Chile’s 2,000 megawatts of geothermal potential to improve energy security going forward and reduce dependence on imported hydrocarbons.

Previous exploration work in Chile has been carried out by Enap and partner Enel.

Chile is one of the countries on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, along with Indonesia, New Zealand and the Philippines, where volcanic activity has produced rich geothermal resources.”

Source: Wall Street Journal