Nautilus Minerals Share Discussion Threads

[underperformer] 29/10/2010 17:05

Thanks for all the updates here. They made a very strong presentation a few weeks back at a minesite conference and ought to be on a few radars.

[andrbea] 29/10/2010 16:31

up 3.17% in Canada

[andrbea] 29/10/2010 11:24

yes, on a knife-edge until nus (in Canada or here) makes it official

lots of blogs discussing it, eg Oct 22:


So, it hardly comes as much of a surprise that the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) similarly gave the thumbs up this week to a plan to mine minerals from the ocean floor off the island nation's coast.


Prime Minister Michael Somare has licensed Nautilus Minerals, Inc. of Toronto, Canada, to extract copper, zinc and gold at depths of 1,600 meters below the ocean's surface. The project, dubbed Solwara 1, has been in the works since the late 1990s. PNG's Department of Environment and Conservation granted the project the necessary environmental permit in December 2009 for a term of 25 years.

[ramnik007] 29/10/2010 10:31

Andrbea - thanks for the updates. Hopefully good news flow in the next 2 weeks.

[andrbea] 29/10/2010 09:31

PNG have granted NUS a licence to mine, but the 2 parties are still finalizing a few clauses (so no RNS yet):

Oct 26:

PNG manager for the company, Mel Togolo, says the licence could therefore not be issued as planned this week.

But he says it is still confident of securing the licence soon.

''We are very confident that this project will go ahead. We also know that the PNG government supports the project''.

He says both parties have agreed to resolve the issue within two weeks.



Earlier Web news:

DURHAM -- On Oct. 20, the island nation of Papua New Guinea opened the door for the world's first private venture to mine massive metal sulfides from the deep sea floor. The permit allows Nautilus Minerals to begin mining for gold and other metals nearly a mile below sea level, in a space roughly the size of 49 football fields, near the hydrothermal vents known as Solwara 1.

Areas targeted for mining in the deep sea can be five to 10 times more productive than terrestrial mining. This means the same amount of gold that will come from Solwara 1 would require up to 500 football fields of strip mining. On top of this, the environmental impacts of deep sea mining are fundamentally different than the well-understood, and deeply problematic, environmental effects of terrestrial strip mining or even sub-surface gold mining.

The area to be mined by Nautilus may yield metals with a market value in excess of $300 million, but we should be prudent and measured in the development of deep sea mining so we don't lose critical ecosystems and habitats.

Read more:

[andrbea] 29/10/2010 09:27

The area to be mined by Nautilus may yield metals with a market value in excess of $300 million, but we should be prudent and measured in the development of deep sea mining so we don't lose critical ecosystems and habitats

Read more:

[andrbea] 27/10/2010 08:02

17 hrs ago

[andrbea] 26/10/2010 19:27

as to the PNG licence, a 2-week delay:

Issues

Nautilus has also admitted there was a disagreement between the two over a number of issues on the licence.

PNG manager for the company, Mel Togolo, says the licence could therefore not be issued as planned this week.

But he says it is still confident of securing the licence soon.

''We are very confident that this project will go ahead. We also know that the PNG government supports the project''.

He says both parties have agreed to resolve the issue within two weeks.

[andrbea] 26/10/2010 19:26

Minsite presentation Oct 12 2010 (from iii)

Nautilus presented at Minesite today
Much of this is on the company website in their last investor update or the huge (275 page) independent study they published a few months ago, so I will just mention a few highlights
1. Solwara 1 authorizations- only final one for mining now awaited, commission recommeded approval and minister has indicated approval, so it is expected shortly.
2. Partner- discussions continue and most likely at present is some kind of "toll" type arrangement- where part of Capex would come in in return for effectively share in output (right to process etc). Capex total around $380m, cash $180m, and they aim to fund rest through partner if possible, don't want to borrow at all.
3. Resource at Solwara 1 around 2mt at 7.2% Cu, 0.6% Zn, 6 g/t Au and 30 g/t Ag. However this based on drilling only 9m, as this was limit of previous equiptment. New drill coming will do 40m. 44% drills open at depth, so the resource is likely to grow considerably.
4. All pieces of tech basically now organized. Main issues are around integration of the different pieces of equiptment. Now on 11th mining plan...
5. Production plan is 1.2mt/year initially with the 1 ship- so Solwara 1 resource so far under 2 years operation. However equitment can be moved to another site quite cheaply. OPEX around $70/t, value of ore around $600/t, so one can see cash flow once (if, for the doubters) it actually starts is huge.
Hope you find this useful

[smarm] 26/10/2010 08:28

An RNS will follow when NUS have the paperwork.

S

[smarm] 25/10/2010 15:08

andrbea - good work, keep it up but why, I wonder, have we not seen an RNS? I have emailed the PR company for an answer to that question!

S

[andrbea] 25/10/2010 14:16

The PNG government has recently approved a licence for the world's first deep-sea mine, Ramu Nickel Mine Watch said on October 20.

The Solwara 1 mine, owned by Canadian company, Nautilus Minerals, will mine for copper and gold in the Bismark Sea off New Ireland.

[andrbea] 25/10/2010 12:30

Driven by rising copper prices around the world, Nautilus' Solwara 1 project will excavate 1.2 to 1.8m tonnes of high-grade sulphide ore a year.

[andrbea] 25/10/2010 12:29

NUS has a tsx listing, so the action will start there first I'd suppose (when Canada opens at 15.30h)

here's more of the story (not yet on an RNS):

[andrbea] 25/10/2010 12:24

the website still doesn't mention the news from the 22nd on the Internet

[andrbea] 25/10/2010 12:11

Prime Minister Michael Somare has licensed Nautilus Minerals, Inc. of Toronto, Canada, to extract copper, zinc and gold at depths of 1,600 meters below the ocean's surface. The project, dubbed Solwara 1, has been in the works since the late 1990s. PNG's Department of Environment and Conservation granted the project the necessary environmental permit in December 2009 for a term of 25 years.

[underperformer] 15/10/2010 12:29

These guys presentated at minesite recently, my first time to see. Seems a long way to production...am trying to figure out what the catalysts might be ... i.e. proving the undersea technology works etc. Certainly the quality of the ores they are talking about are amazing.

[andrbea] 22/9/2010 16:09

establishing itself as one of the world's largest potash distributors," said Sirius's chairman, Chris Catlow. "Signing this MOU demonstrates that major fertiliser consumers are concerned about the current concentration of the potash supply and wish to fast-track the development of new large resources."

BHP has always sought out what it calls "tier one" assets, but you never know – if its bid for PotashCorp does not succeed, maybe Mr Catlow will be getting a call from Marius Kloppers of BHP.


Nautilus seeks undersea treasure

To the casual observer, mining is, of course, all about digging dirty great big holes in the ground and taking out whatever is found there.

Not, however, if you talk to Nautilus Minerals. The Aim-listed company has decided that the seabed can be just as fruitful as any mountainside. And the company is, it claims, pioneering a way of combing the sea floor for high-grade copper, gold, silver and zinc deposits.

The plan is to develop Nautilus's site off the coast of Papua New Guinea, bringing the project into production by 2012. The company claims it "will benefit from low extraction costs, high grade ores, 80 to 90 per cent recovery rates and [it] is expected to generate between $500m and $750m in revenues per annum".

The idea is to crush and then smooth the seabed and collect the debris, which is sucked to the surface in a similar way to oil. It is loaded on to ships and ferried around the world. Back in June, Nautilus signed a drilling agreement which will lead to exploration work kicking off in October. The deal has certainly helped the share price, with Nautilus's stock trading 120 per cent higher than it was at this time last year.

[smarm] 23/8/2010 09:33

VT - maybe you could start your research by spending some quality time reading about what they do on their website.



Presentations usually good place to start.



S

[zangdook] 19/8/2010 21:50

not on potential alone; they have $185m cash.