Nautilus Minerals Inc.’s operator, Teck Cominco Ltd., has completed the first phase of its $12-million (U.S.) 2008 offshore exploration program over Nautilus’s exploration tenements. These tenements are located in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea and exclusive economic zone of Tonga. The phase-one program was completed on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, with the demobilization of the MV Sepura in Port Moresby. This phase involved a 28-day bathymetric mapping program within the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea that was designed to define targets for subsequent geochemical surveying and remote-operated-vehicle-based sampling.
Vice-president, exploration, for Teck, Fred Daley, commented: “Our dedicated crew of technical, safety and logistics personnel has been able to complete this program on time and under budget, without a single lost-time injury or safety incident and with greater seabed coverage than was originally planned. We are excited by both the quality of the data and the results, which are a significant improvement on previous data sets. Our geologists and geophysicists are currently working with Nautilus personnel to interpret this new data and prioritize targets for our follow-up sampling program, which we are planning to launch in mid-May.”
Nautilus chief executive officer, David Heydon, commented: “The bathymetric survey is phase one of Teck’s $12-million (U.S.) 2008 exploration program. After this program Teck can elect to form a joint venture with Nautilus and invest to earn an interest in up to six countries, as per our December, 2007, agreement. Nautilus is fortunate to have a company of Teck’s size and ‘ore finding’ expertise spending significant money on Nautilus ground in parallel with our own exploration to fast-track a resource pipeline. We are eagerly awaiting the results of their follow-up program.”
Options exercised
As a result of the exercise of options, the company has made an application for 98,700 common shares to be admitted to the Alternative Investment Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange. The shares are expected to be admitted to trading on May 13, 2008.
