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CANADIAN mining company Nautilus Minerals is facing a severe financial crisis that threatens its plans for experimental seabed mining in Papua New Guinea and the future of the whole company.
Nautilus says not it is delaying further project spending and it desperately needs short-term emergency funding to continue company operations and allow staff more time to look for significant additional funds.
It says “there can be no assurances that the company will be able to obtain the necessary bridge financing or project financing on acceptable terms or at all”.
This may lead to it suspending or terminating the development of the seafloor production system and the PNG Solwara 1 Project.
Nautilus says it requires significant additional funding to complete the build and deployment of the seafloor production system to be utilised at Solwara 1. The shortfall is believed to be at least $US200 million.
The dire financial situation reflects the enormous uncertainties surrounding the company’s proposed experimental seabed mining operations. Nautilus does not know if its plans for seabed mining are financially or technically feasible or what the environmental and social impacts will be.
New research has also revealed seabed mining could have catastrophic climate impacts, further increasing the uncertainty for potential investors and increasing the opposition to the mining.