摘要：

Djibouti is very small country (23,200 km~(2)) in the horn ofeast Africa. It is a stable, politically neutral, democratic country. Its mining and investment policies encourage investments. The policy of the government is to provide assistance to any local and foreigner investors to obtain permits/concessions for geothermal and mining exploration and then to evaluate and develop the potentiality of the geothermal and mineral resources of the country in general and particularly in Assal area. The Government policy is to develop energy and mineral resources of Assal as a new economic pool of the country and encourage foreigner investors to come and develop these resources as a complex industry for energy and minerals production. The economy up to day depends on the strategic position of Djibouti port as a centre between Europe, Africa and Asia as well as the principal railway linking Ethiopia to the sea. Up to now Djibouti electric power generation depends only on the imported petroleum products and the price fluctuation in the international oil market. However, the Republic of Djibouti is located on the triple junction of the red sea, Gulf of Aden and east Africa rift, one of the world's hottest spots, and contains numerous active hot springs and several areas favourable for geothermal energy and geothermal mineralization systems. Some of these hydrothermal systems have been investigated as potential energy, gold and base metal sources, particularly in Assal area. Exploration for geothermal energy in the Assal rift has been underway since 1970. Several deep wells were drilled and met high temperature and high enthalpy fluid production containing valuable minerals. Epithermal gold deposits with high grade near the surface have also been discovered in the Assal area. As a lot of effort and money has been spent on the geothermal exploration work at Assal, Djibouti is interested to plan and build a pilot complex plant there to provide electric power and water to the region. A pilot project could also be used as a tool to train local staff for larger geothermal plants in the future.

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