By Bernadette H. Carreon
Horizon news staff

Yap has granted a London- based company to undertake exploration of polymettalic sulphide deposits over an area of 200,000 square kilometers within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Federated States of Micronesia.
Neptune Minerals earlier made a presentation before the Compact Review Commission here in Palau.
In the company’s presentation, the company is looking for Seafloor Massive Sulphide (SMS) deposits are present day mineral accumulations that contain high grade assemblages of base & precious metals such as copper, zinc, lead, gold & silver.
The company said that 300,000 cubic meters of material and that metal values per tonne can cost as high as $1,200 and the estimates of costs to recover and sell it are in the order of $200 to $300 tonne.
According to the foreign investment permit granted by Yap to Neptune, the area where the exploration will be conducted will cover the area of 200,000 kilometers and is bounded to the east by the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench and to the west and north by the boundary of the FSM EEZ.
The permit will also cover a four-year period commencing on April 9,2007.
According to a press statement from Neptune, "Neptune’s permit to explore in the FSM represents a frontier exploration situation, where publicly available data has been used to make application over an area where no previous research has been conducted. The lack of SMS-specific research is because the Yap arc is inactive along its length-there are no active hydrothermal processes," Dr. Simon McDonald, Chief Executive Officer of Neptune.
Yap is located 200 miles near Kayangel State where oil exploration is proposed.