Nautilus awards electrical installation contract to Siemens for deep-sea mining project
Siemens International Trading has secured a contract to supply the entire electrical installation for Canada-based ocean floor mining company Nautilus Minerals' production support vessel (PSV).
Siemens International Trading has secured a contract to supply the entire electrical installation for Canada-based ocean floor mining company Nautilus Minerals’ production support vessel (PSV).
The PSV is scheduled to be the first deployed for the Solwara 1 gold-copper-silver underwater mining project in the Bismarck Sea in the south-western Pacific Ocean of Papua New Guinea.
Under the contract, Siemens’ wholly owned subsidiary will deliver all main generators, switchboards, transformers, electrical motors and associated systems for power generation, propulsion, automation and distribution.
"Their involvement with our first seafloor production system…highlights the quality of the system that we are building."
Additional contract responsibilities include the provision of various switchboards and transformers to facilitate power distribution to seafloor production equipmentm which will be built into the PSV.
Nautilus CEO Mike Johnston said: "The electrical package marks the fourth major long-lead-time package to be awarded by the shipyard, Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding.
"We are especially pleased to be partnering with another world-class, global company such as Siemens.
"Their involvement with our first seafloor production system, along with other industry heavyweights such as GE Oil and Gas, Sandvik, Soil Machine Dynamics, Rolls-Royce, Bedeschi and McGregor highlights the quality of the system that we are building."
Explored by remotely operated vehicles, bathymetric surveys, surface sampling and core drilling, the Solwara 1 project development includes the recovery of high-grade seabed sulphide deposits from the floor of the Bismarck Sea, a major resource of base metal sulphides, gold and silver.