Overview of Geothermal Resources in North Part of Laos

Abstract

There are eleven geothermal resources discovered in the North Part of Laos. They are mainly distributed in western part, eastern part, formed in the magmatic, sedimentary and metamorphic formations listed into the ages from Devon to Quaternary and to closely relate with large tectonics faults in the area. The measured geothermal resources temperatures are changed from 40oC to 86oC. The analysis results of eleven water samples showed that SiO2 content in all samples is not so high, total mineralization contents are small to be changed from 0.07 to 13.6 and they have the trace element components, the mineral composion such as Bromine, Iodine, Fluorite and H2S. They are listed into the low- temperature geothermal resources, not used for the geothermal plant development with nowadays technology. These geothermal resources can be directly invested into tourism, balneology, canning and fish farms to develop the North part economics of Laos in going years.