22 December 2010 Chatham Rise progress update

Widespread Energy has fast-tracked the year-one work programme on the Chatham Rise rock phosphate project.  It has filed the year-one progress report with the Crown Minerals division of the Ministry of Economic Development two months ahead of its due date.

During the last ten months Widespread has developed a New Zealand-based project team with a broad range of experience, as well as making connections with international research and other institutes.

This team includes:

Chris Castle, Project leader
Robin Falconer & Associates, Technical Lead & Chief Scientist
Kenex Ltd, Database management and project support
REM Ltd, Environmental Lead
GNS, Project Support and advice
NIWA, Project consultant
Rockpoint Finance, Financial advisors
University of Waikato, Widespread supporting MSc research

In addition, international research connections have been made with German research institutes who were heavily involved with previous activities on the Chatham Rise. These contacts include Dr Ulrich von Rad, the chief scientist on the RV Sonne cruise in 1981 and Dr Herman Kudrass, chief scientist on the 1978 RV Valdivia cruise.

Both have connections to Bundesanstalt Fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) – the German government scientific research organisation. Research work conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s was done jointly between NZ and German organisations under “the West German – New Zealand Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation”.

Planning for ongoing work in 2011 is well advanced and will focus on further enhancing the knowledge of the deposit, the understanding of the environmental setting and initiating scoping work regarding mining solutions.