UNDERSEA MINER AWARDS $65 MILLION CONTRACT IN PNG

[Lux]

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Jan. 3) – Nautilus Minerals
has awarded a £33 million [US$65.5 million] contract to offshore technology
company SMD Hydrovision to build the world’s first undersea mining
equipment.

The UK-based equipment supplier has been commissioned to design two seafloor
mining tools (SMT) and also to develop Nautilus’ mining site off the coast
of Papua New Guinea.

The custom-made equipment would mine volcanic rock, known as massive
sulphide, on the seabed believed to contain ores of metals including copper,
zinc and gold.

Mining operations were due to start in late 2010.

"This is something pretty special … it’s the first subsea mining equipment
for massive sulphide deposits in the world," Mark Collins, SMD sales manager
said.

"It’s all completely new technology."

Mr Collins said this type of work was traditionally done on land, but now
mining companies were looking at the bottom of the seabed where there was
quite a lot of it around.

"Nautilus Minerals has identified areas around the world where this material
is sitting on the seabed…"

[Lux]

Pacific countries warned of potential environmental devastation from
seabed mining

Posted at 06:18 on 12 June, 2008 UTC

An Australia-based NGO is encouraging Pacific governments to take a
closer look at the potential devastation of sea-bed mining.

The Mineral Policy Institute is one of a number of groups raising
concerns about the Canadian mining company, Nautilus Minerals, has
made sea bed test extractions in PNG's exclusive economic zone.

Nautilus is also starting explorations in Tonga, and has lodged
exploration licence applications in Fiji and Solomon Islands.

Although Nautilus says a yet to be published scientific impact study
found sea-bed mining is environmentlly safe, the International Seabed
Authority sees mining as destructive.

The institute's spokesperon, Techa Beaumont, says that regional
governments need to consider this before they sign away the sea-bed in
their EEZ to mining companies.

"The international experience around shared ocean areas is that
the International Seabed Authority has taken a very conservative
approach and hasn't permitted companies to undertake these activities
in international waters, largely because they saw them as potentially
very damaging."

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