1 February 2012

Dorado to sample rock phosphate on Chatham Rise

The research vessel Dorado Discovery will reach the Chatham Rise today to test bulk sampling equipment that Chatham Rock Phosphate plans to use later this year.

Dorado Discovery’s owners, Nasdaq listed Odyssey Marine, has purchased a clamshell bucket to add to the array of scientific equipment and machinery on the ship and built a special handling frame that can take seabed samples of about 1.3 cubic metres.

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 CRP before Christmas.

Data and images collected on the cruise involved the most significant research work undertaken of the Chatham Rise since the German vessel Sonne’s major cruise in 1981 as part of efforts by a New Zealand-German joint venture to evaluate the commercial viability of the area’s rock phosphate deposits.

CRP holds an exploration licence over 4276 sq km, 450 km east of Wellington, at shallow depths on the Chatham Rise and in New Zealand territory. The licence has priority rights to extend the permit or apply for a mining licence. As announced last week CRP has now given notice that it wishes to extend the prospecting licence for the second two-year term.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has approved the testing work.

The Dorado Discovery, owned by Odyssey Marine, is specially set up for marine mineral exploration and has been undertaking such work in the SW Pacific for the last 15 months

ENDS

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