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Released Date - January 19, 2010
PNG- GOLD: P/COURIER PACNEWS BIZ : Tues 19 Jan 2010
Gold found undersea in PNG
19 JANUARY 2010 PORT MORESBY (POST COURIER) ----- The world’s first under sea miner Nautilus Minerals Inc. has struck five high grade seafloor massive sulphide systems on its Solwara project in the Bismarck Sea.
The company announced that systems were discovered last year in Solwara 12, 13, 14, 16, and 18, during its 2009 exploration campaign.
Copper grades up to 32.4 per cent and zinc grades up to 52.6 per cent were reported from grab samples collected from these discoveries using a hand held x-ray fluorescence (“XRF”) meter.
The company also announced that final assays on samples collected from Solwara 12 and 13, have also been received, and indicate gold up to 39.7 grams per tonne and silver up to 682 grams per tonne.
Additionally, the company has made a further high grade discovery at Solwara 11 (11i) in the Western Bismarck Sea.
Nautilus chief executive officer Stephen Rogers said “Further success in the Bismarck Sea, PNG, combined with good assay results clearly highlights this region as a significant SMS domain.
“Our work is now focussed on the evaluation and ranking of the new systems in preparation for an intensive drilling campaign in 2010.”
The exploration vessel MV Fugro Solstice was successfully demobilised in Singapore last week after completing a 132 day program of water geochemistry studies, geophysics, remotely operated vehicle (“ROV”) mapping and ROV sampling.
A further two lower grade systems (Solwara 17 and 19) were also discovered in the Bismarck Sea and one new system (Solwara 15) where samples were not taken due to an ROV breakdown.
All three systems will require further investigation.
Nautilus considers the presence of hydrothermal mineralisation and alteration at these sites encouraging, especially given that the two lower grade systems occur in the older part of the Bismarck Sea.
Additional exploration work is planned to test this potential….PNS (ENDS
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