GREY:NUSMF - Post by User
Post by
janny1on Mar 13, 2007 8:04am
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Post# 12406841
GATA Post
GATA PostOcean floors are the new mines
14:39:02 GMT, 12 March, 2007
Gold mining firms are now having to look to the ocean floor for the next batch of mineralised land just like the oil and gas industry, who years before turned to the seas as a source of riches.
Because "the land-based areas have been explored to death" the chief executive of Nautilus Minerals, David Heydon, says that his firm will be among the first to make the break and scour the ocean beds for gold.
He said: "The same grades that the good old timers took out 100 years ago on land and filled their wheelbarrows up with this really rich ore is just sitting on the sea floor."
Other firms taking the same approach include Barrick Gold, Anglo-American and Teck Cominco and all hope to take the next step from exploration to production very soon with Nautilus in particular hoping to be mining by 2010.
It can be more cost-effective to mine underwater due to reduced costs for stripping material and not needing to build a mine with a shaft.
Nautilus's project is near Papua New Guinea