Key points
- Nautilus Minerals contracted Gardline CGG Pte. Ltd. to provide exploration services using the survey vessel MV Duke.
- The 43-day program mobilizes from Brisbane, Australia on or about April 25, 2015, within Nautilus’s 100-per-cent-owned Solomon Islands exploration licences.
- The Duke is a 67-metre, 2,031-gross-tonne vessel built in 1983 and refitted in 1998, equipped with a Kongsberg EM302 multibeam system.
- The program will use multibeam echo sounder mapping and plume hunting techniques to define new SMS targets.
Nautilus Minerals Inc. has signed a contract with Gardline CGG Pte. Ltd. to provide exploration services for Nautilus’s 2015 program in the Solomon Islands. The MV Duke will be used to generate targets to expand Nautilus’s sea floor massive sulphide prospect inventory within its 100-per-cent-owned Solomon Islands exploration licences.
Mike Johnston, Nautilus’s chief executive officer, commented: “We are excited to be back on the water this year, focused on adding to our high-grade SMS prospect inventory by applying the successful high-tech exploration techniques we have been refining since 2006. This is the second time we have been supported by Gardline in our exploration efforts and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them.”
The contract with Gardline CGG is for 43 days of services, mobilizing from Brisbane, Australia, on or about April 25, 2015. The program will define SMS targets using efficient multibeam echo sounder and plume hunting techniques. Plume hunting is a regional geochemical technique involving the discovery of metal-rich plumes of material that are ejected into the water column from prospective areas, by natural geological processes. The primary objective of this program is to discover further mineralized systems to support the company’s business model. Among its many anticipated advantages, sea floor resource production will allow the aggregation of resources from multiple mineralized systems without the need for significant additional capital.
The Duke, which will be used for this program, is a 67-metre-long, 2,031-gross-tonne survey vessel, originally built in 1983, and then extensively refitted in 1998 by A/S Vaagen Vert, Norway. The vessel is equipped with a hull-mounted Kongsberg EM302 multibeam system — a state-of-the-art sea floor mapping system that provides some of the highest-quality sea floor mapping data available.
