The company announced on Thursday that the SPV was launched at the Mawei Shipyard in China where it had been under construction.

Nautilus CEO, Mike Johnston, called the launch a significant milestone for the company and the deep water sea floor mining industry.

“Mawei Yard has designed and built the world’s first deep sea mining production support vessel in cooperation with Nautilus and Marine Assets Corporation. This has involved much discussion, thought and innovation, to produce this magnificent vessel,” said Johnston.

The company announced on Monday (12^th Feb) that it has successfully completed its trials at the Motukea Port outside of Port Moresby.

Mike Johnston, Nautilus’ CEO, said: “The overarching objective of the trials was to ensure that all three machines met the requirements of their respective functional design specifications in submerged conditions.

“Results to date indicate that they do. Analysis is ongoing with a view to complete a full report on the submerged trials by the end of Q1 2018.”

The Company announced last night that Wright’s resignation is effective as February 26^th 2018.

CEO Mike Johnston said Wright played a significant role over the last three and a half years in the areas of project management, stakeholder and government engagement and corporate social responsibility.

“We would like to thank him for the valuable contributions he has made to Nautilus’ progress to date and wish him well in his future endeavours,” said Johnston.

The company announced on December 28^th 2017 the resignation of Debney which came into effect the on December 27^th 2017.

The announcement comes days after Nautilus Minerals announced that it is still seeking additional finance to fun the Sowara One Project located outside New Ireland Province.

The Company still requires significant additional funding in order to complete the build and deployment of the seafloor production system.

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Police forcefully removed evicted families from Gordon’s today by loading their goods onto a waiting truck while setting on fire other belongings.

In its latest statement on December 20^th, the company says discussions with various parties and major stakeholders have taken longer than expected but the Company remains positive that the discussions will be concluded soon.

This follows on from its similar announcement on December 4^th where they also extended a funding deadline.

In September the company announced that an additional funding of US$41 million (K125 million) was needed before the year’s end to complete the build and deployment of the seafloor production system.

This follows an announcement by the company on Wednesday updating its previous reference to a funding requirement of US$15 million by October 31 2017 to US$10 million by November 30 2017 for its Seafloor Production System.

“The Company continues to be in discussions with various parties involved in the manufacture of the Seafloor Production System, and the Company is making progress with respect to deferring some of its immediate cash flow requirements.

The company is currently testing its Auxiliary Cutter (AC).

This follows the testing of its Collecting Machine (CM), which has indicated that the machine can perform to design specifications, and the team is now looking at operating enhancements.

The AC is a preparatory machine that deals with rough terrain and creates benches for the other machines to work. It will operate on tracks and has a boom mounted cutting head for flexibility.