TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian marine-mining hopeful Nautilus Minerals on Monday reported that it had started commissioning and factory acceptance testing of the third seafloor production tool (SPT), the auxiliary cutter, at engineering firm Soil Machine Dynamics’ facility, at Newcastle upon Tyne, in the UK.
The auxiliary cutter will weigh in at 250 t when fully assembled. It is the preparatory machine that would deal with rough terrain and create benches for the other SPTs to work.
It would operate on tracks with spud assistance and has a boom mounted cutting head for flexibility.
“We are very excited that the commissioning of the final of the three SPTs has begun. With the bulk cutter and the collecting machine having already begun factory acceptance testing and now with the auxiliary cutter underway, we are on track to complete this testing phase and take delivery of the three SPTs in Q4 2015,” Nautilus CEO Mike Johnston said.
Nautilus planned to mine high-grade polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits at 1 600 m below the surface of the Bismarck Sea, offshore Papua New Guinea..