Nautilus Minerals Limited

In a statement, Chairman of Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited, Peter Graham, said the Project has stalled with a substantial proportion of the development work still to be undertaken.

The claim has been filed under a Canadian court supervised creditors process initiated by the parent company of its joint-venture in the Solwara 1 Project, Nautilus Minerals Niugini Limited.

Graham said Eda Kopa contributed K375 million in 2014, representing its full share of all project construction and development costs, both past and future, for its 15 percent interest.

The company announced on Thursday (Feb 8^th) that the Government granted to Nautilus EL2537, which covers 2,558 km², including the same prospective geology that hosts the Solwara 1 deposit.

The company says the area was selected based on reconnaissance sampling and survey completed in 2017 and acknowledged the assistance in this area by the PNG Geological Survey.

Nautilus CEO, Mike Johnston, said: “The granting of this Exploration Licence is excellent news.

The firm says ongoing analysis of submerged trial results indicate that the tools can perform to design specifications with the machine components all functioning as designed in submerged conditions.

The company stated this in its update of the submerged SPT trials at Motukea, outside of Port Moresby.

Nautilus states that submerged trials of the collecting machine and auxiliary cutter were completed late last year and the bulk cutter trials are anticipated to be completed in February.

The cutting performance of the auxiliary cutter has been particularly positive.

Al Barwani joined the Company’s board in May 2016 and is a director and shareholder of MB Holding Company LLC, and Chief Executive Officer of Mawarid Mining LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MB Holding Company.

MB Holding Company is Nautilus’ largest shareholder.

Al Barwani has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Imperial College, United Kingdom, and a Masters in Business Administration specializing in strategy and leadership from McGill University in Canada

The company announced on Monday that it has arranged for US$7 million to assist its immediate working capital requirements and facilitate payments required to continue the development of the seafloor production system.

The seafloor production system will be first utilized at the Solwara 1 Project outside New Ireland Province.

Nautilus says the bridge loans are expected to form part of a larger secured structured credit facility of up to US$34 million (K104 million) to be provided by the lender on terms currently being negotiated.