Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

3. Understanding the Motive of the Investor
There is only one ultimate measure of the success of an investment and
that is the return. But the human element plays a very big part of any
decision.
In December 1997, Nautilus made its first press release headlined
Nautilus Granted World-first Licences over High-grade Marine Sulphide Deposits.
We were nearly bowled over by the response. Nearly every major newspaper
in the world ran something on it. We were on the front page of the New York
Times on Channel 4 ITV News in Britain, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, PNG's
Post Courier – you name it.
From this we learned that there is a deep human interest in mining the
sea. It is seen by the media and the public as an adventure, as pioneering.
This is one of our greatest assets. Once an investment proposal is planned,
structured and budgeted correctly, it is still important that the investor goes
ahead and makes the decision to invest. This is where appeal is critically
important.
In the New York Times, science writer Bill Broad said ‘Mining experts
familiar with the New Guinea project say it could mark a turning point in the
art of metal extraction, especially as growing red tape curbs some terrestrial
digs around the world.’ Nigel Hawkes from The Times in London said
‘Mining companies are about to follow the oil giants to the bottom of the sea.’
This ground swell of public interest has been very important in raising the
private capital that we have raised so far and will be an important driver for
Nautilus and its competitors in the future.
4. The Importance of Grade
Mining higher grades means processing less rock. Grade is the
fundamental difference between manganese nodules and crusts and SMS
deposits. SMS deposits such as the TAG deposit on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
have been known and studied for a long time but did not excite a lot of
interest because of their low grades of commercial minerals. The discoveries
during the last five years have been that within this broad family of deposits,
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