Nautilus Granted Mining
Lease
The
Government of Papua New Guinea has today granted the world's first deep
sea mining lease to Nautilus Minerals Inc (TSX & AIM: NUS)
for the development of its Solwara 1 project
in the Bismarck Sea.
The lease covers an area of approximately 59 km2 surrounding Solwara 1, 50 km north of Rabaul,
where Nautilus intends to mine high-grade copper and gold deposits on
the seafloor, at depths of approximately 1600 metres.
The mining lease has been granted for an initial 20 year term and the
PNG Government has retained an option to take up to a 30% stake in the Solwara 1 project as a joint venture partner. The
option is exercisable within one month. If the option is exercised, the
government will contribute funds to the project in proportion to its
interest, including its share of the exploration and development costs
incurred to date.
Nautilus will now press ahead to conclude its strategic partnering
discussions and continue the development of the Solwara
1 deposit, which has a stated resource of 2.2 million tonnes of ore, including an indicated resource of
870,000 tonnes at grades of 6.8% copper and
4.8 g/t gold (See Note 1).
When it commences production, which is expected approximately two and a
half years after full project sanction, Nautilus plans to produce ore
at an annual rate of more than 1.3 million tonnes,
containing approximately 80,000 tonnes of
copper and 150,000-200,000 ounces of gold. Ongoing deep-sea drilling is
also expected to lead to expansion of the resource base before the
start of production.
Nautilus CEO Stephen Rogers said the granting of the mining lease was
an important step for the company and for PNG.
"This historic decision to grant a lease over a deep sea deposit
is a major step forward for this new frontier, and it reflects the fact
that the Solwara 1 project is being recognised as an exciting, commercially valuable
undertaking," he said.
"We are grateful to the PNG government for its support and welcome
its participation in the project. We look forward to working closely
with the government on Solwara 1, which will
generate significant investment for the economies of New Ireland, East
New Britain and PNG. The successful development of Solwara
1 will pave the way for the expansion of operations to other seafloor
deposits in the future, creating an exciting growth industry further
benefiting PNG," he said.
The mining lease gives Nautilus the exclusive right to import and
construct required equipment and to extract, process and sell minerals
in accordance with the project development plan submitted by the
company and the environmental permit granted by the PNG Government in
2009 (See Note 2).
Links
Figure 1 - Map of ML154 area: www.nautilusminerals.com/i/misc/ML154_Solwara1_Map.pdf
Note 1 - For the full release regarding the resource, please see the
following link: http://www.nautilusminerals.com/s/Media-NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=284239.
Note 2: For the full release regarding the granting of the
environmental permit by the PNG Government, please see the following
link:
http://www.nautilusminerals.com/s/Media-NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=362963
About Nautilus Minerals Inc.
Nautilus is the first company to commercially explore the ocean floor
for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits and is currently developing its
first project. The Company's main focus is the Solwara
1 Project, which is located in the territorial waters of Papua New
Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean. Nautilus is listed on the TSX and
AIM stock exchanges, and has among its largest shareholders two of the
world's leading international resource companies Anglo American (11.1%)
and Teck Resources (6.8%), as well as Metalloinvest, one of the largest and fastest
growing mining and metallurgical holding companies in Russia, which
beneficially owns 21.0% of the Company's issued shares through Gazmetall Holding (Cyprus) Limited.
For more information please refer www.nautilusminerals.com or contact:
Investor Relations
Nautilus Minerals Inc. (Toronto)
Email: investor@nautilusminerals.com
Tel: +1 (416) 551 1100
Joe Dowling
Vice President Investor Relations and Communications
Tel: +61 (7) 3318 5544
Cell: +61 431 365 741
Email: jjd@nautilusminerals.com
Numis Securities Limited
Nominated adviser: John Harrison
Corporate broking: James Black
Tel: + 44(0) 20 7260 1000
Neither the TSX nor the London Stock Exchange
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press
release.
Certain of the statements made in this news release may contain
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and forward-looking information within
the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking
statements and forward-looking information include, but are not limited
to statements or information with respect to the conclusion of the
negotiations of a strategic partner relationship, the date of
commencement of production and the annual rate of production from the Solwara 1 project and the amount of copper and gold
to be derived there from, and the expansion of the resource base within
the disclosed time period. We have made numerous assumptions about the
material forward-looking statements and information contained herein,
including among other things, that the possible strategic partners will
continue to negotiate with Nautilus and the negotiations will be
successfully concluded, that the planned annual rate of production will
be achieved within the disclosed time period. Even though our
management believes that the assumptions made and the expectations
represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can
be no assurance that the forward-looking statement or information will
prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by
their nature involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different
from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements or information. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors
include, among others, the risk that the potential strategic partners
will not continue to negotiate with Nautilus in good faith or at all.
Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors
materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual
results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking
statements and information. Although we have attempted to identify
factors that would cause actual results to differ materially from those
described in forward-looking statements and information, there may be
other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or
events to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of
the factors are beyond our control. There can be no assurance that
forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate, as
actual results and future events could differ materially from those
anticipated in such statements. Accordingly you should not place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements or information. Except as
required by law, we do not expect to update forward-looking statements
and information as conditions change and you are referred to the full
discussion of the Company's business contained in the Company's reports
filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada.
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