Noutras paragens mais pacíficas, o que está a suceder?
Nautilus seabed mining project jeopardized again: The company, the first to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic massive sulphide deposits, was granted a mining lease by the PNG authorities in January 2011, following the environmental permit award in December 2009.
But the mine developer has been swimming in choppy waters ever since. It faces critics from the environmentalist and the marine biologist community as per the consequences of its Solwara 1 gold, copper and silver project. The company has also been locked in a dispute with the government of the South East Asian nation since June over ownership of the project, located in the Bismarck Sea.
Over 20,000 signatures submitted to PNG Mining Minister Byron Chan by residents from the provinces of Madang, Oro and New Britain, stating that they don’t want the project to go ahead, reports Radio New Zealand.
Locals insist they have seen dead fish washing up on beaches and that the water has been polluted by the exploration work. But a company's spokesperson told MINING.com that there is absolutely no truth to those claims.
PNG landowners want seabed mining stopped: "What guarantees do we have that the explorations going on are not disturbing our eco-system from the sea floor and up?" New Ireland resident Oigen Schulze said.
It's Time to Rethink Our 'Manifest Destiny': Companies are interested in mining cobalt-rich crusts on Pacific seamounts, and Nautilus Minerals is set to begin the first ever commercial mining of deep-sea hydrothermal vents off Papua New Guinea.
Tesoros minerales, a un paso de la explotación: gobiernos y empresas buscan explotaciones alternativas. Y buena parte de ellas las están encontrando en los fondos marinos, en las plataformas continentales, en lugares hasta ahora poco accesibles como el Ártico, en los salares de Argentina, Bolivia y Chile, o incluso en las formaciones de pizarra de EE UU - que, según el presidente de la multinacional Chesapeake Energy, Aubrey McClendon, podrían hacer del país «el Arabia Saudí del gas natural».
Nautilus Minerals plumbs new depths, comes up smelling of roses: Shareholders in Nautilus – after today's jump worth $224 million on the Toronto big board – have seen the value of their investments plummet by 44% since the company initiated a legal battle on June 1 over the copper-gold-silver project in the Bismarck Sea and the troubles with its German shipbuilders.
Last week the firm closed a private placement at 90c that raised $33.9 million to continue to build its Seafloor Production System.
All the major shareholders of the company supported the offer – Oman's MB Holdings increased its stake to just under 17%, Metalloinvest held at 21% while Anglo American maintained its interest at 11%.
Nautilus has not ruled out returning to the market for more money or finding JV partners to bring the project to completion.
