Coober Pedy strikes black gold

Coober Pedy strikes black gold

Posted on Thursday, January 24 2013 at 1:03 PM

The tiny South Australian mining town of Coober Pedy could be home to the country’s largest oil resource.

It’s well known
for its homes, which are mostly in the form of ‘dugouts’ and built under rock
due to the extreme temperatures, but it might soon be on the map for much more
significant reasons if Linc Energy has its way.

The mining company
has released reports stating the Archaringa Basin surrounding Cooper Pedy could
have between 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of untapped oil.

Adelaide Now reports Australia could potentially turn from an oil
importer to oil exporter while fueling the entire country.

While it’s
obviously early days, Lin Andrews Coober Pedy real estate agent Di Enders says
her phone has been ringing off the hook since the news broke this morning.

“I’ve had so many
calls, you wouldn’t believe it,” she says. “My brain is about to explode.”
Enders says the main reasons why people buy in Coober Pedy are tight vacancy
rates and high rental yields, but the area does have limited infrastructure.

Rents are going
up by about $10 per week at the moment.

“People renting
don’t want to surrender their houses, they know they won’t get another one,”
she says.

There are
currently no listings on realestate.com.au. Enders adds the vacancy is tight at
the moment but she doesn’t want Coober Pedy to turn into “another Roxby Downs” where
investors speculated about the expansion of Olympic Dam, which was then
delayed.

SA TAFE property
investment course coordinator Peter Koulizos says the news is “very exciting”
and potentially much bigger than the Olympic Dam project.

But he warns the
findings are still years away from eventuating into something much bigger.

“Most mining
projects have two phases. One is to get government approval, the second one is
to get finance.

“South
Australians are a little bit cautious now, we’re certainly not popping bottles
of champagne at the moment.”

Linc Energy
managing director and chief executive officer Peter Bond agrees it’s still
early days but believes the findings are positive.

“Linc Energy is
committed to delivering the best outcome for the development of this acreage
and maximising value to shareholders,” he says.

“The best way for
Linc Energy to do that is to bring in an industry expert with the know-how and
funding to drive this asset forward to production as promptly and as
efficiently as possible.”

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