Underwater mining specialist Nautilus Minerals posts first half losses of $7.98m – down from $18.75m a year ago.
The reduction was largely a result of the company capitalising exploration and evaluation expenditure at Solwara 1 following receipt of a mining lease from the Papua New Guinea government in January.
The lease provides Nautilus with a 20-year licence to mine an area of approximately 59 sq km surrounding Solwara 1, 50 km north of Rabaul, where Nautilus intends to mine high-grade copper and gold deposits on the seafloor, at depths of approximately 1600 metres.
The net cash position remained strong at $112m at the end of the period, following additional investment of $42m in plant & equipment and mineral properties during the six months.
CEO Steve Rogers said: “Nautilus made excellent progress in the first half of 2011, achieving a number of important milestones.
“Our financial position remains healthy and strong global commodity prices continue to enhance the business proposition.
“Significant value has been added over recent months as our exploration programs have yielded encouraging results, and we have gained additional highly prospective exploration territory in Fiji and International waters.
“We look forward to the delivery of components for our seafloor production equipment and the announcement of a resource update in the second half of the year.”
[mappress] Source: stockmarketwire, August 15, 2011;