Nautilus Minerals Inc. has been granted 16 offshore exploration licences covering 77,552 square kilometres, being an area containing most known prospects within the 1887 proclamation area of the Kingdom of Tonga in the Western Pacific. A further 14 tenements covering 8,267 square kilometres in the exclusive economic zone of the Solomon Islands have also been granted, continuing the company’s tenement holding in the highly prospective Woodlark basin to the east of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Nautilus now has approximately 119,950 square kilometres of granted tenements, and approximately 250,110 square kilometres of tenement applications in the territorial waters and exclusive economic zones of Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Zealand.
Nautilus Minerals’ chief executive officer, David Heydon, commented: “Following the success of our 2007 exploration program in Papua New Guinea with the discovery of new sea floor massive sulphide systems and the development of geophysics and drilling tools, Nautilus continues to build on its first mover advantage and to develop a pipeline of projects with its goal to have a resource inventory across the Western Pacific that can be aggregated with a mobile mining spread. The exploration licences granted in Tonga cover a strike of over 900 kilometres of highly prospective geology known to contain sea floor massive sulphide (SMS) occurrences. The prospectivity of the granted exploration licences has been demonstrated by initial survey work undertaken by marine scientific research (MSR) groups, including groups from the USA, Japan, Korea and Germany. These MSR groups have identified at least 10 prospects where SMS accumulations have been observed. Surface sampling by these MSR groups over just five prospects returned average results of 22.7 per cent zinc, 4.7 per cent copper, 2.0 grams per tonne gold and 77 g/t silver from 231 samples. These results are similar to our experience in PNG where MSR groups initially discovered a number of systems, with further work by Nautilus confirming the tenor of mineralization in these systems and rapidly discovering others. The licences granted in the Solomon Islands are an extension of our highly prospective Woodlark basin tenements to the east of Papua New Guinea.”
Nine of the 16 granted titles in Tonga (core titles) and all of the Solomon Island licences are 100 per cent owned by Nautilus with the other seven Tongan licences subject to an option by Teck Cominco to enter into a joint venture to earn a 40-per-cent interest by spending $25-million (U.S.) on exploration within two years of exercising its option. Teck Cominco may earn an additional 10.1 per cent in each selected project area (defined as an area 100 square kilometres to 200 square kilometres) by spending $10-million (U.S.) on each project area.
AVERAGE RESULTS OF MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SAMPLING
ON SULPHIDE PROSPECTS IN TONGA
Samples Zinc Copper Gold Silver
% % g/t g/t
King’s Triple Junction 78 28.2 5.6 N/A 18
White Church 44 6.5 0.4 2.6 83
NVFR site 2 12 13.9 9.5 2.3 86
NVFR site 3 8 24.3 4.4 1.9 89
Vai Lili 89 26.9 5.4 3.3 124
22.7 4.7 2.0 77
(1) Note that these average values are from a scientific report and may
be based on sulphide samples that were specifically selected for
detailed analysis and scientific research on the formation and
genesis of SMS systems. Therefore, the average values stated only
reflect the average of the samples selected and may not reflect the
average value of the SMS deposit. Experience from the company’s work
in PNG as documented in its 43 101 report on the SEDAR website has
shown that scientific report values provide a reasonable indication
of the potential of mineralization.
The Kingdom of Tonga (also known as the “Friendly Islands”) is an archipelago of approximately 170 islands containing 748 square kilometres of land spread over 360,000 square kilometres of the Southern Pacific Ocean; roughly two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. Tonga is a constitutional monarchy, with His Majesty King George Tupou V as head of state. The major industries in Tonga’s open economy include agriculture and fisheries, and its major trading partners include New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the United States of America. Tonga is an active member of both the United Nations and the Commonwealth, and recently joined the World Trade Organization as an observer. Tonga’s population of just over 100,000 people speak English and Tongan. Tonga has a common law tradition.
The Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government, and Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Nautilus’s tenements all lie within Western province, adjacent to Papua New Guinea, and cover the main Woodlark basin spreading centre.
