Results of new whole-rock oxygen-isotopic and mineralogic analyses of drill cuttings, combined with prior exploration data, suggest that deep (true vertical depth 2.9 km) exploratory well Audrey A-1 penetrated the fringes of a small, high-temperature (up to 300?C), but fault-restricted and sparingly permeable hydrothermal system beneath a soil mercury anomaly surrounding the historic Sulphur Bank mercury mine. Although this is an area of very high heat flow (up to more than 420 mW/m2), the new data strongly suggest that the hydrothermal system is unlikely to yield thermal fluids at the rates currently required for commercial viability.

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