Nautilus Minerals has announced that Teck Cominco has commenced the second phase of its 2008 US$12 million offshore exploration program, with the departure of the vessel ‘DEA Surveyor' from Singapore.
This 150-day program will involve geochemical surveying and sampling, and Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) based sampling over Nautilus tenements in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the exclusive economic zone of Tonga. Part of this program will involve following up on targets defined by surveys completed by the ‘Sepura' in PNG earlier this month. "We have an aggressive offshore exploration program that we are implementing in 2008," said VP Exploration for Teck Cominco, Fred Daley. "This program involves four vessels deploying geophysical and geochemical instruments; and in the case of the ‘DEA Surveyor', an ROV that will have the capability to take rock samples." Nautilus Minerals is following the lead by the petroleum industry to tap vast offshore resources and is planning to mine high-grade seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits of copper, zinc gold and silver. Mine planning is well underway for the world's first seafloor copper gold mine in 1,500 metres of water at the Solwara 1 project in Bismarck Sea in PNG, 50km north of Rabaul Township. The company holds more than 365,000km2 of tenement licences and exploration applications in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand along the western Pacific Ocean's Rim of Fire. In March 2005, Nautilus, in joint venture with Placer Dome, undertook new exploration at Solwara 1 aboard the ‘Genesis' with side scan sonar and dredge sampling.
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