Nautilus Minerals Inc. has contracted Canyon Offshore, a member of the Helix Group and a leading service provider to the offshore oil and gas, and telecommunications industries, to provide the vessel, remote-operated vehicle (ROV), and drilling equipment for a major exploration, evaluation drilling and environmental base line study program, commencing in March, 2007, over its Solwara projects in Papua New Guinea.
The program, which will involve between 160 and 210 days on the water, will commence with environmental baseline studies at the company’s Solwara 1 prospect then move to geophysical target generation throughout the Bismarck and Solomon seas where the company will target further mineralized systems.
Following this work, drilling is planned to commence on the Solwara 1 prospect in early June, 2007, to generate information for mine planning purposes. This drilling will use two ROV drill units currently being built by Perry Slingsby Systems Inc. (one of the world’s leading providers of ROVs) under contract to Canyon Offshore.
David Heydon, president of the company, commented: “We are very excited about the extensive work program that we have planned for this year which will significantly advance Nautilus towards our goal of being the first company to produce copper, zinc and gold from seafloor massive sulphide deposits. This work program is aimed at completing the drilling and environmental studies required, subject to Papua New Guinea government approval, to develop the Solwara 1 prospect. We will also focus on the discovery of further mineralized systems within our extensive groundholdings in both the Bismarck and Solomon seas.”
The company has granted a total of 50,000 options to one employee at a strike price of $4.99. These options have a term of three years, vesting as to 20 per cent every six months for a period of 30 months starting six months after the date of grant.
