Nautilus: Work begins on machines

 NAUTILUS Minerals on Wednesday said the assembly of its second of three tools, the collecting machine, had this week commenced at a facility in the United Kingdom.

The collecting machine is the lightest of the three, weighing 200 tonnes when fully assembled. 

This tool is designed to collect material cut from the seafloor by drawing it in as seawater slurry with internal pumps and pushing it through a flexible pipe to the riser and lifting system.

The Canadian seafloor miner said the production support vessel arrangements for the Solwara 1 Project would be in place at the end of the year.

Nautilus will mine gold and copper under the Bismarck Sea.