Nautilus Minerals
Nautilus Minerals, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, was the frontrunner in the race to begin deep-sea mining. The company secured a mining lease and environmental permit from the government of Papua New Guinea in January 2011 to operate in the country’s territorial waters.
The Solwara 1 project is located in the Bismarck Sea, off the New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The lease covers an area of approximately 59km2, and the company planned to extract high-grade seafloor massive sulphide systems, which contain copper and gold, at a depth of approximately 1,600m.
However, Nautilus terminated the construction of its Seafloor Production System in November 2012 due to a dispute with the government of PNG. On February 13 this year, Nautilus announced that it had terminated its agreement with the state and was seeking damages, claiming that the PNG government was in breach of an agreement to buy a 30% interest in the project.
In a conference call following this announcement, Michael Johnston, president of Nautilus, said that the company still plans to develop the Solwara 1 project. However, he also stated that the PNG government has forfeited its right to participate in the project, along with any equipment, intellectual property and licences.
In addition, he said that Nautilus will still move forward with shipbuilding plans, and expects to select a shipbuilder by the December quarter of 2014.
In addition to the Solwara 1 project, Nautilus holds more than 500,000km2of exploration territory in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand and the central Pacific.
Quelle:http://www.miningmagazine.com/panorama/delving-the-depths
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