Key points
- The 191-metre vessel Jules Verne will be built by La Naval in Sestao, northern Spain, under contract with the Jan De Nul Group for Nautilus’s Solwara 1 project near Papua New Guinea.
- Prior component awards include five 4,500-kilowatt main diesel engines to MAN Diesel Group in November 2006, dynamic positioning thrusters to Wartsila Nederland BV on Jan. 19, 2007, and rudder propellers to Schottel-Antriebstechnik GmbH on Feb. 15, 2007.
- Steel fabrication is proposed to begin in November 2007, with construction completion estimated for the third quarter of 2009, and the shipyard will equip the vessel with subsea mining equipment for ore recovery from depths up to 1,700 metres.
- Nautilus maintains its target, subject to Papua New Guinea government approval, to begin commissioning for mining operations at the end of 2009.
Nautilus Minerals Inc. has retained the Jan De Nul Group, one of the world’s leading dredging companies, in a shipbuilding contract with La Naval, in Sestao, northern Spain, for the construction of “Jules Verne” a 191-metre vessel to be used as the ship for Nautilus’s deep-sea copper and gold mining project, the Solwara 1 project, located in the waters near Papua New Guinea.
David Heydon, Nautilus’s chief executive officer, said: “The signing of the building contract with the shipyard for Jules Verne is a major step forward in the delivery of the Solwara 1 project, building on Nautilus’s leading position and first mover advantage in seafloor mining. With the ship build in hand, Jan De Nul engineers, in close co-operation with Nautilus, will now focus on the award of the design and build of the special mining and pumping equipment whilst the Nautilus environmental team works on completion of the environmental impact statement.”
This contract follows the commencement of manufacturing for the key components of the ship which included the award of five 4,500-kilowatt main diesel engines to the MAN Diesel Group in November, 2006, dynamic positioning thrusters to Wartsila Nederland BV on Jan. 19, 2007, and rudder propellers to Schottel-Antriebstechnik GmbH on Feb. 15, 2007. Model testing of the vessel hull will be completed by the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) in the near future.
It is proposed that the shipyard will commence steel fabrication in November, 2007, and the construction is estimated for completion third quarter 2009. As part of the contract, the shipyard will be responsible for equipping the vessel with specialist subsea mining equipment and associated handling systems necessary for the recovery of ore material from a water depth of up to 1,700 metres.
With this progress on the vessel, Jules Verne, and the advancement of preliminary designs for the specialist subsea equipment, Nautilus maintains its target, subject to timely Papua New Guinea government approval, to commence commissioning for mining operations at the end of 2009.
