Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

flow to the metal markets. He also pointed out that a regional bank might
only want, for example, to invest in Nautilus’ activities in Papua New Guinea,
while an individual speculator would want to be able to trade in the company
and to see a listing on a stock exchange. For this reason, Mr. Malnic said that
Nautilus viewed itself as an international group of companies that holds
rights to different regions and differing technology and real estate elements.
As concerns structure therefore, Mr. Malnic said that it has had to be such that
it could entertain all kinds of investors and be able to give them something
that addresses their needs.
With slides, Mr. Malnic identified the marine three areas for which
Nautilus had submitted applications to the Government of Papua New
Guinea. He pointed out the Conical seamount and Lihir Island deposits
previously referred to by Dr. Peter Herzig. He also said that most of the
planned marine scientific research activity is to be concentrated in this area.
He recalled that in December 1997, Nautilus had issued its first press release
headlined “Nautilus granted world’s first licences over high grade marine
sulphides deposits”. He further recalled the tremendous coverage that the
issuance of the licenses had received in the world’s press and media,
including the New York Times, ITV news in Britain, the Minneapolis Star
Tribune, the PNG Post Courier and magazines such as the Arkansas
Democrat Gazette. Based on this experience, Mr. Malnic said that anyone
engaged in an effort to undertake marine mining should put a significant
effort into leveraging the associated media coverage and public entertainment
as a driver for fundraising. He also said that the media and public see marine
mining as a pioneering adventure, and suggested that this element of romance
should be used to create the excitement that makes investors want to sign up
and be part of the project. Compared to land, Mr. Malnic said that there are a
large number of seafloor massive sulphides deposits to be claimed, and that
these deposits are going to be the low-cost mines of the future.
Pointing out indications of copper in samples of massive sulphides
ore, Mr. Malnic stated that the larger proportion of the rock is made up of
economic minerals. He also said that mining high grades of economic mineral
material means processing less rock. He emphasized that grade is the
fundamental difference between manganese nodules, and cobalt-rich
ferromanganese crusts and SMS deposits.
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