Azumah Resources

Find out more about Subscribing Companies
Unique access to energy
investors. Global distribution
of company news.
Find out more.
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter
Informed comment and independent news delivered
by email every week.
Sign up here.
Find out more about Minesite Forums
Management and investors
are brought together at our
investor forums.
Find out more.
Bulletin Board
Join other informed investors.
Debate mining companies.
Visit Bulletin Boards.
OPUS Executive
An Insider's Guide to the Mining Sector, 2nd edition
Exchange Traded Gold
Bishopsgate Communications
T1ps Spreadbetting
Ian Plimer: Heaven and Earth
HighGrade.net
Commodity Watch Radio
Jobs4mining
Doug Casey Research
UNCTAD
Ocean Equities Ltd
Bullion Desk
allipo.com
Ambrian Capital

Company Information for Nautilus Minerals Inc

Company stock charts - 6 Month chart

Exchange TSX; NUS


View full financial data
Exchange AIM; NUS


View full financial data

Company Statement

Nautilus Minerals Inc ("Nautilus") is following the lead by the petroleum industry to tap vast offshore resources and is planning to extract high-grade Seafloor Massive Sulphide ("SMS") deposits of copper, gold, zinc and silver.

Planning is underway for the world's first seafloor copper-gold site in approximately 1,600 metres of water at the Solwara 1 Project in the Bismarck Sea, New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea.

The Company holds more than 528,000 km2 of tenement licences and exploration applications in the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand along the western Pacific Ocean's Rim of Fire.

Listed on the Toronto (TSX) and London (AIM) exchanges, Nautilus has among its cornerstone shareholders three of the world's largest resource companies and its alliances and technical partnerships position it as the world leader in deep-water exploration of SMS deposits.


Current Operations

Solwara Project - Gold and Base Metals
 
DELIVERING OPERATIONS ON TIME AND WITHIN BUDGET
Combining skills from onshore mining, dredging and deepwater construction, our engineering team has scoped out the three main components of the production system, which are the:

Seafloor Mining Tool;
Riser and Lifting System; and 
Production Support Vessel.

The first step in the extraction process involves cutting the seafloor material and drawing it into the suction mouth of the Seafloor Mining Tool (SMT) as slurry. It is then transported to a pumping module and lifted up a steel riser pipe to the Production Support Vessel (PSV) on the surface where the material is dewatered. After dewatering, the ore is transferred to barges on a continuous cycle for shipment to a nearby port facility.

Engineering work for the project is ongoing in 2009

METALLURGY
Results from mineralogical and metallurgical investigations of ore concluded that a highly marketable copper concentrate with grades of better than 28% copper can be produced using standard froth flotation techniques with copper recoveries of more than 85%. Additionally the low bond work index, indicates the potential low capital and operating cost for treatment of Solwara 1 ore.

Analysis was completed on 10 composite samples recovered from 1.2 tonnes of Solwara 1 drill core collected during the 2007 drilling campaign at the Company's Solwara 1 Project, located in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea ("PNG"), as documented in the Resource Report completed by Golder Associates Pty Ltd. Testing indicated that over 95% of the copper occurs as the mineral chalcopyrite The chalcopyrite is coarse-grained and can be liberated from the gangue with high recovery to produce a marketable concentrate.

Grinding and flotation tests indicate effective liberation with a likely primary grind size of 80% - 55 micron and regrind size of 80% -25 microns. Comminution data tabulated indicates that the ore has an average Bond Ball Mill Work Index of about 11 kWh/t. The copper concentrates contain significant gold contents and in some cases payable levels of silver. Greater than 90% of the gold reports to sulphides either to a copper or a pyrite concentrate. Further work defining gold and silver deportment is in progress. (May 23, 2008)

Golder Associates SMS NI43-101 compliant resource estimate for Solwara 1.
• Indicated Mineral Resource: 870kt @ 6.8% Cu, 4.8g/t Au, 23g/t Ag, 0.4% Zn
• Inferred Mineral Resource: 1,300kt @ 7.5% Cu, 7.2g/t Au, 37g/t Ag, 0.8% Zn

The resource was open to the west and at a depth where 38% of holes finished in mineralisation. The area drilled in 2007 was constrained by the vessel contract term and the depth limitations of the new Remote Operated Vehicle drill rigs. Currently Nautilus is working with its partners to extend the depth capacity for 2010.

ON-GOING PROJECT DEVELOPMENT WORK
In addition to the engineering work, the Project Development team continues its work on mine planning, materials handling, shipping, metallurgical testing and processing studies. 
 


Geographical Spread

Western Pacific


Board of Directors and Key Management

Directors
A. Geoffrey Loudon (Chairman and Non-Executive Director)
Stephen Rogers (President, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director)
David De Witt (Non-Executive Director)
Russell Debney (Non-Executive Director)
A. Farhad Moshiri (Non-Executive Director)
John O'Reilly (Non-Executive Director)


Management
Anthony O'Sullivan (Chief Operating Officer)
Shontel Norgate (Chief Financial Officer)
Michael Johnston (Vice-President Strategic Development)
Scott Trebilcock (Vice-President Business Development and Investor Relations)
Glen Smith (Chief Technology Officer)
Mel Togolo (PNG Country Manager)
Paul Tamoepeau (Tonga Country Manager)

Company Address

Corporate Office
Suite 801, 141 Adelaide Street
Toronto, Canada M5H 3L5

Telephone:+1 (416) 551-1100
Facsimile:+1 (416) 703-5246
Email:investor[at]nautilusminerals.com
Website:http://www.nautilusminerals.com

Additional Address/Key Contact

Project Office (Brisbane, Australia)
Nautilus Minerals Inc
Level 7, 303 Coronation Drive
Milton Queensland, Australia 4064
PO Box 1213, Milton Queensland,
Australia 4064

Tel: +61 7 3318 5555
Fax: +61 7 3318 5500

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Nautilus Minerals Nuigini Pty Ltd
Level 1, Deliotte Tower
Douglas Street Port Moresby, PNG
PO Box 1161, Port Moresby, PNG

Tel: +675 321 1284
Fax +675 321 1685

Nuku'alofa, Tonga, South Pacific
Nautilus Minerals Tonga #1 Ltd
2nd Floor, Kupu House
Fatafehi Road, Nuku'alofa
Tonga, South Pacific
PO Box 893 , Nuku'alofa, Tonga, South Pacific

Tel: +676 21 733
Fax +676 21 734

Capital

Common Shares;155,558,884
Options;13,046,167
Warrants;3,257,907
Fully Diluted;171,862,958*

* Additional potential cash from full dilution US$60.9m

Nominated Brokers

Numis Securities Limited
10 Paternoster Square
London EC4M 7LT
Switchboard +44 20 7260 1000

Nominated Advisors

Numis Securities Limited
10 Paternoster Square
London EC4M 7LT
Switchboard +44 20 7260 1000

Major Shareholders

Gazmetall Hiolding (Cypruss) Limited21.0%
Teck Resources6.8%
Anglo American plc11.1%

Related News

31/03/09 - Nautilus Is Positioning Itself Shrewdly For The Eventual Upturn In Metal Prices
14/10/08 - Nautilus Minerals and Teck Cominco Discover a Number of High Grade Seafloor Massive Sulphide Systems in PNG and Tongan Waters.
10/01/08 - Nautilus Minerals In At The Deep End

Most Recent Statement

03/07/09 - Completes Phase 2 of Tongan Exploration Program and Issues Options
25/06/09 - Nautilus Minerals AGM Voting Results
11/06/09 - Nautilus Confirms High Grades in Phase One of 2009 Tongan Exploration
29/05/09 - AGM Statement
27/05/09 - Exploration Success Continues for Nautilus Minerals
19/05/09 - Solwara 1 Development Project Update

To top