Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

CHAPTER 8
FACTORS IN FINANCING EXPLORATION FOR SEAFLOOR MASSIVE
SULPHIDES DEPOSITS
1. Introduction
Julian Malnic, Chief Executive Officer
Nautilus Minerals Corporation, Darlinghurst, Australia
With exploration for Seafloor Massive Sulphides (SMS)* deposits
barely half a decade old, there are not statistically sound generalizations that
can be drawn from the financing experience so far. Furthermore, because of
the normal confidentiality that surrounds corporate activity, knowledge of
industry experience does not extend far beyond our own group. However, it
is evident that the capital raising process will be similar to either terrestrial
mineral exploration, or maybe even to dot.com style, companies.
As the first pioneer into this new field starting in 1994, Nautilus has a
unique experience base that I will attempt to share with you in this
presentation. I hope that my comments here today are illustrative and inform
our workshop about life in this exciting new sector of mining
The reason that we are here is to promote a broad understanding of
the challenges we are facing and to give people from all sectors a feel for the
sort of people we are and the things that motivate us.
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*The term Seafloor Massive Sulphides (SMS) has been proposed to create a
distinguishing label for this new marine variant of a class of deposits normally
referred to as Volcanogenic Massive Sulphides. SMS deposits differ markedly in that
they are still forming, or have recently stopped forming, and that they will require
very different commercial and engineering solutions to VMS in their mining. The
term polymetallic is strongly discouraged in labelling or describing SMS deposits
(and manganese nodule deposits) because virtually all ores are ‘polymetallic’ before
they are processed and thus the word confuses rather than distinguishes.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 332