October 21, 2013
Canada-based Nautilus Minerals (21 % owned by Alisher Usmanov’s Metalloinvest) specializing in the mining of solid mineral resources localized on the ocean floor said it may start mining of mineral raw materials at the second deep water area in of the New Guinea sea (in the Papua New Guinea region) in the coming four years.
In an interview with Radio Australia head of the company Mike Johnson noted that Nautilus is ready to continue the development of its pioneering Papua New Guinean sea-floor mine after the arbitrator, the Honourable Murray Gleeson AC QC has issued an award in Nautilus' favour in respect of the issues that were the subject of the Notice of Arbitration initiated by the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (the "State"). The arbitrator's award includes:
- a declaration that the State was in breach of the State Equity Option Agreement signed by the parties in March 2011 in failing to complete the purchase of a 30% interest in the Solwara 1 Project on 7 November 2011;
- an order that the State is required to comply with its obligations under the agreement to complete the purchase of the 30% interest in the Solwara 1 Project and pay 30% of all project expenditure incurred to date within a reasonable time after the award.
Nautilus has today issued the State with a notice requiring completion to occur on 23 October 2013. Nautilus estimates the total amount payable by the State at completion to be approximately US$118 million (including interest).
According to Mr. Johnson, Solwara 1 is the first in the history project, in the minerals-rich Manus basin of PNG's Bismarck Sea, is claimed by Nautilus as the world's first commercial sea-floor mine, and is slated to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2013, however, its «graph» reflected the reduction of prices for gold and copper and litigation with authorities. However, the manager believes gold and copper prices at the moment are «very good».
Sources: http://www.nautilusminerals.com/s/Media-NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=606405