PACIFIC OCEAN – Toronto-based
Nautilus Minerals has upgraded the 43-101 estimate for its Clarion-Clipperton zone project under the direction of its subsidiary, Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd. CCZ is a large deposit of polymetallic nodules in the tropical north Pacific at depths of 4,000 to 6,000 metres.
Because of the nature of the mineralization conventional drilling has not been attempted. As a result, the estimates are not given in traditional form (tonnes at average grade), although a total resource of more than 685 million tonnes is posited.
The estimate for areas A to F within the Clarion-Clipperton zone include:
- Measured – 2.6 million tonnes grading 27.57% Mn, 1.33% Ni, 1.05% Cu and 0.23% Co (abundance of 11.81 wet kg/m2);
- Indicated – 68.1 million tonnes at 30.32% Mn, 1.35% Ni, 1.18% Cu and 0.21% Co (abundance of 12.19 wet kg/m2); and
- Inferred – 685.3 million tonnes grading 29.05% Mn, 1.29% Ni, 1.14% Cu and 0.20% Co (abundance of 11.52 wet kg/m2).
Interested readers are urged to read the entire technical report on SEDAR (
www.SEDAR.com).
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