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Nautilus makes big discovery
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SUBSEA explorers Nautilus Minerals Inc. and Teck have finished 2008 with a bang, making a promising discovery in the waters off the coast of mainland PNG. Nautilus reported in the middle of last quarter that Teck had found a new seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) system - Solwara 11 in exploration licence, EL-1647, located in the Bismarck Sea about 100km south of Manus Island. Solwara 11 represents an important milestone for Nautilus because it is a potential lead into a new mineralised district. The system is located more than 300km away from the nearest known SMS system. According to Nautilus, the discovery highlighted the potential of the company's large land package and the ability of modern exploration techniques to find mineralised systems quickly. Teck, working under their earn-in option to certain Nautilus ELs, recently submitted a report detailing the discovery of Solwara 11. Work covered in the report was completed from the DEA 'Surveyor', a 61m long vessel and included the recovery of samples from the floor of the Willaumez district at water depths ranging from 1300m to 1500m. Pieces of sulphide chimney averaging 1.4kg (from 0.38kg to 3.93kg) were collected from the sea floor using a manipulator arm mounted on the remote-operated vehicle (ROV). Samples were placed in a sample basket on the front of the ROV and then sub-sampled on board the ship. The sample selection targeted material that was considered representative of the SMS system. Representative sub-samples for analysis were taken from the larger samples using either a hammer or rock saw. The remaining portions of each sample were retained for reference purposes. Teck report that: (1) Sulphide outcrops up to 10m high have been mapped using video camera and sonar instruments from a RVO protruding from a base of predominantly pillow lava basalts; and (2) Solwara 11 comprises at least three defined metal-bearing chimney fields plus other associated iron-manganese oxide and/or silica-iron sulphide zones. According to Teck, these demonstrate a broad hydrothermal alteration system within an area of approximately 2.8km by 2km. The discovery resulted from multi-beam, backscatter, and water-column physical and chemical data collected from the company's cruises in the Bismarck Sea during April and June 2008. The information was used to define an exploration programme that targeted areas with the greatest prospectivity. |
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