Nautilus Minerals has been advised by GE Oil and Gas, that it will recommence assembly of the Subsea Slurry and Lift Pump (SSLP) in July this year.

Mike Johnston, Nautilus’ CEO, commented: “we are delighted to have been advised that the SSLP will be coming out of storage shortly and its assembly will recommence in July of this year. The SSLP is a key piece of equipment in Nautilus’ plan to produce copper, gold and other metals from the deep ocean, with a very small environmental footprint. We look forward to taking delivery of the finished pump mid next year.”

The SSLP and riser system transfer the mineralized material as slurry from the deep ocean up onto the Production Support Vessel (PSV), where the mineralized solids are removed. The filtered return water is transferred back down to the pump via the auxiliary riser pipes where it is released back into the same environment from which it originally came from (see figure 1 in the links section below).

GE Oil and Gas produces these types of pumps for the offshore oil and gas industry, where amongst other things, they are designed to help limit the environmental impacts of drill cuttings in deep water drilling operations by helping recover the cuttings for eventual storage on land.

Image: Nautilus