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Thursday, 24th July 2008 (1526 views)

A company has filed an application for a deep sea gold mining expedition off the coast of New Zealand, according to Stuff.co.nz.

Neptune Minerals lodged the application for the A$622 million (£300 million) operation with the country's Ministry of Economic Development.

The gold is apparently located 300 kilometres to the north of East Cape.

According to the website, the company proposes to pull up thousands of tonnes of gold from the ocean to be consolidated onshore before being delivered to a smelter.

Campbell McKenzie, manager of Neptune Minerals, told Fairfax Media, Stuff.co.nz's parent site, that: "The study we have done so far indicates the margins are good there ... and ... we certainly think we can make it a commercial proposition."

Mining will focus on two deposits on Rumble II, an inactive underwater volcano.

If the application is approved it will be the world's second deep sea mining operation.

Nautilus Minerals is the company who has the world's first underwater gold mine off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

 

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