Mr. Mike Johnston reports

NAUTILUS MINERALS COMMENCES COMMISSIONING OF THE AUXILIARY CUTTER

Nautilus Minerals Inc. has started the commissioning and factory acceptance testing of its third and final sea floor production tool, the auxiliary cutter, at Soil Machine Dynamics' facility at Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

Nautilus's chief executive officer, Mike Johnston, said: "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 under way, we are on track to complete this testing phase and take delivery of the three SPTs in Q4 2015."

The auxiliary cutter will weigh in at 250 tonnes when fully assembled. It is a preparatory machine that deals with rough terrain and creates benches for the other SPTs to work. It will operate on tracks with spud assistance and has a boom-mounted cutting head for flexibility.

How they will work

The excavation and collection of mineralized material have been split into three individual tasks, which will each be carried out by a different SPT. The auxiliary cutter is designed as the pioneering tool that prepares the rugged seabed for the more powerful bulk cutter. These two tools gather the excavated material; the third, the collecting machine, will collect the cut material by drawing it in as sea water slurry with internal pumps and pushing it through a flexible pipe to the subsea pump and on to the vessel through the riser and lifting system.

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