Panax Geothermal announced today that they will not be able to commence drilling at their Penola site until mid December 2009, three months later than originally planned.

The drilling plant that Panax plans to use for the project is unlikely to be released from its current drilling site until then, due to difficult drilling conditions.

In their latest Market Release to the Australian Stock Exchange, Panax said that they are unlikely to have the same difficult drilling conditions affect the Penola drilling program.

The Penola project is targeting relatively young rock which are well known to the drilling industry, as more than 11 wells to the depth of 3,000 metres have previously been drilled in the area.

In commenting on this, Managing Director Bertus de Graaf stated "The continued delays in the availability of the contract drilling rig are disappointing. However, Panax is ready to commence its drilling activities. Records from previous wells in the target reservoir zone show that we can be confident that the drilling of Salamander-1 is highly unlikely to take longer than planned".