Seabed mineral explorer Chatham Rock Phosphate is this week
beginning tests at sea, on bulk sampling equipment on the
seafloor of the Chatham Rise.
Chatham Rock Phosphate is in the second half of its four-year
prospecting licence and plans to spend $US2 million ($NZ2.47
million) on its next round of exploration and data
acquisition, with the aim of gaining a mining licence within
the next 24 months.
Managing director Chris Castle said the research vessel
Dorado Discovery was due to reach the Chatham Rise yesterday
to test the bulk sampling equipment it plans to use later
this year.
"The test samples gathered over the next several days will
help to ground-truth the electronic information recently
gathered during an 11-day scientific cruise for Chatham Rock
Phosphate before Christmas," Mr Castle said in a market
update yesterday.
The Dorado Discovery's owners, Nasdaq-listed Odyssey Marine,
had bought a clamshell bucket to use alongside other
scientific equipment and machinery on the vessel and had
built a special handling frame which can take seabed samples
of about 1.3cu m.
Permit agency New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has approved
the testing.
Chatham Rock's permit covers 4726sq km over the central
Chatham Rise, 450km east of Christchurch.
It intends to extract shallow seabed deposits of rock
phosphate in a depth range of 375m-425m, and it estimates
20sq km of phosphate could be extracted annually and replace
$300 million of imports.
Mr Castle said the data and images collected from the
December voyage involved "the most significant research work
undertaken" at the Chatham Rise since the German vessel
Sonne's visit in 1981; a New Zealand-German joint venture to
evaluate the phosphate's commercial viability.
Tomorrow, subscriptions close in a recently extended share
purchase plan to Chatham Rock Phosphate's 255 shareholders.
It hopes to raise several hundred thousand dollars, which is
part of a total $US5 million being sought including separate,
offshore, private placements.
simon.hartley@odt.co.nz
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