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Projects
 
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Nautilus Minerals Inc ("Nautilus") is following the lead by the offshore oil and gas industry to tap vast offshore resources. It is the first company to commercially explore the seafloor for massive sulphide systems, a potential source of high-grade copper, gold, zinc and silver. Nautilus is developing a production system using existing technologies adapted from the offshore oil and gas industry to enable the extraction of these high grade Seafloor Massive Sulphide ("SMS") systems on a commercial scale. Nautilus is focused on the Solwara 1 Project, which is located at 1600 metres water depth in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea. Nautilus is developing an integrated production plan to develop a "best practice" ecologically sound and sustainable recovery system for the known resource and expected resource upside. The implementation plan is a two-phased project development.
The recovery and ore handling system in phase 1 will comprise the following main elements:
The system design draws extensively upon technology used in the subsea oil and gas sector, and combines this with rock cutting and materials handling technologies used in land-based mining operations. To ensure reliability, dual redundant systems are employed on critical subsystems such as the cutting tools. The Production Support Vessel (PSV) is a key component of the recovery system and will be fitted out with the Subsea Mining Equipment. The ore will be cut and transported via a horizontal pipe as slurry to the riser system. The ore will be lifted to the ship via a subsea pumping and pipe-works system, where it will be dewatered, and the resulting deep sea water returned to the same water depth from where it was extracted. The dewatered ore will then be barged to Rabaul, where it will be temporarily stored, and then transferred to large ocean going bulk carriers for shipping to an existing concentrator facility for tool treatment. Concentrate will be sold to the smelting markets. Building on the success and using cash flow from Phase 1, Nautilus will build and commission a mineral treatment concentration facility to upgrade the ore to concentrate before smelting and onward sake to the market. This project phase will add further value to the development. Click here to see how this works RESOURCE The exploration team drilled a partial superficial 43-101 resource on the Solwara 1 project in 2007 using newly developed ROV drills. The resulting high grade copper-gold resource was the world's first SMS resource statement. Results were as follows (December 20, 2007):
CURRENT ACTIVITY The Project Development team continues production planning and engineering work on, materials handling, shipping, metallurgical testing and processing equipment. The team is actively engaged in sourcing production vessels, concentrator solutions and other key contracts. Work also progresses on the Mining Lease (ML) application and the development proposal which were submitted to the Government of PNG in Q3, 2008 (October3, 2008). To download the EIS and for more information on Safety, Community and the Environment, please visit our CARES pages www.cares.nautilusminerals.com | | |
