Nautilus Minerals Inc.’s new collaborative exploration to search for new seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) systems in Tonga has commenced. This collaborative program is between the Australian National University (ANU) and Teck Cominco Ltd. The vessel, RV Southern Surveyor, which is the Australian Marine National Facility vessel, departed today from Suva in Fiji. The vessel is managed by CSIRO, the Australian government research organization. The objective of this program is to discover new SMS systems on Nautilus tenements in the Peggy Ridge area within the exclusive economic zone of Tonga. During the 12-day program, the RV Southern Surveyor will target prospective ground using a variety of instruments to detect geochemical plumes associated with SMS systems.
The RV Southern Surveyor program is in addition to the phase 1 (MV Sepura) and phase 2 (DEA Surveyor) programs, and is financed as part of Teck Cominco’s $12-million (U.S.) 2008 exploration program on Nautilus’s Papua New Guinea- (PNG) and Tonga-granted tenements. Teck Cominco directly chartered the phase 1 and 2 vessels, and is collaborating with the scientific community in this program.
ANU lead scientist Richard Arculus commented: “Our collaborative team is excited to be working with Teck Cominco and Nautilus to complete this work in Tonga. Through this collaboration, we anticipate extending the bounds of science by completing research that would otherwise not occur.”
Fred Daley, vice-president, exploration, Teck Cominco, commented: “Teck Cominco is very excited to be working with ANU and Nautilus on a project of this calibre in Tonga. The research and technical excellence that ANU brings to the project is considerable and, we hope, successful in outlining areas for additional studies.”
David Heydon, Nautilus’s chief executive officer, commented: “The Southern Surveyor cruise is a great win-win opportunity. Nautilus and Teck Cominco are able to utilize a well-equipped vessel that is already mobilized in the target survey area. With an international group of university scientists, we have access to leading researchers to work with our exploration team, maximizing the opportunities to further build our prospect inventory and project portfolio as we progress the Solwara 1 project.”
