The lift-system contract covers engineering and project management services for the delivery and commissioning of all system components including a subsea pump, riser, surface handling and ancillary equipment. (A riser is a pipe or assembly of pipes used to transfer materials from the seabed to surface facilities, and to transfer injection or control fluids from the surface facilities to the seabed.) Technip’s operating center in Houston, Texas, will execute the contract.

Nautilus’ Minerals’ Solwara 1 mine site, located offshore Papua New Guinea in approximately 5,500 ft of water, contains seafloor deposits rich in copper and gold and is considered to be the first commercial mining project for seafloor massive sulphides (SMS). Toronto, Canada-based Nautilus Minerals recently reported that Teck Cominco had completed the first phase of a $12-million 2008 offshore exploration program involving a 28-day bathymetric mapping program within the territorial waters of PNG that was designed to define targets for subsequent geochemical surveying and remote operated vehicle-based sampling.

Fred Daley, vice-president of exploration for Teck, said, “We are excited by both the quality of the data and the results which are a significant improvement on previous data sets. Our geologists and geophysicists are currently working with Nautilus personnel to interpret this new data and prioritize targets for our follow-up sampling program.”

Teck Cominco owns approximately 7.2% of the shares of Nautilus Minerals. Epion Holdings Ltd., a company owned by the Russian Metalloinvest Group, owns 22.4% of the shares and Anglo American owns 5.7%.

In December 2007, Teck and Nautilus struck an agreement that allows Teck to apply its $12 million joint-venture option payment to conduct and manage a shipbased exploration program in 2008 in one or more of four designated areas in Papua New Guinea, Tonga and New Zealand. Excluded from these areas are the Solwara 1 to 8 projects, a 17,500-km2 tenement package in Papua New Guinea and exploration licenses and applications in Tonga and Fiji applied for before October 20, 2006, which remain 100% owned by Nautilus.