Papua New Guinea: Nautilus Minerals Completes Seafloor Drilling Program in Bismarck Sea

Nautilus Minerals has completed its 2010/11 seafloor drilling program, with the vessel, REM Etive, having demobilized in Singapore on May 16, 2011.

During the drilling program in the Bismarck Sea of Papua New Guinea, Nautilus completed a 99 hole diamond drilling project, for a total of 1475 metres.

Drilling was focused within the area of the Mining Lease (ML154) recently granted to Nautilus, which contains the Solwara 1 deposit and the Solwara 5 seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) discovery. A total of 71 holes was drilled in ML154, for 1147 metres. The remainder of the drilling was conducted in Exploration Lease 1374, which hosts Nautilus’ Solwara 12 SMS discovery.

Nautilus’ CEO, Steve Rogers, said the highlight of the campaign had been the identification of mineralization at depth at Solwara 12 and the improved knowledge gained at Solwara 1.

“We have commenced data evaluation and analysis and it is expected that results will be reported before the end of this year,” he said.

Nautilus has commissioned Golder & Associates to generate an updated resource estimate.

About Nautilus Minerals Inc.

Nautilus is the first company to commercially explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits and is currently developing its first project at Solwara 1, in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean. Nautilus is listed on the TSX and AIM stock exchanges, and has among its largest shareholders two of the world’s leading international resource companies Anglo American (11.1%) and Teck Resources (6.8%), as well as Metalloinvest, one of the largest and fastest growing mining and metallurgical holding companies in Russia, which beneficially owns 21.0% of the Company’s issued shares through Gazmetall Holding (Cyprus) Limited.

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Source: Nautilus Minerals,May 18, 2011;