Key points
- The ceremony took place at the Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd. shipyard in China.
- The vessel will serve as the base for Nautilus and partner Eda Kopa (Solwara) Ltd.’s seafloor operations at the Solwara 1 project in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea.
- Marine Assets Corp. (MAC) will own and provide marine management of the vessel, which will be chartered to Nautilus.
- CEO Mike Johnston said Nautilus expects to take delivery of the vessel in December 2017 and begin seafloor operations in the first quarter of 2018.
The steel-cutting ceremony for Nautilus Minerals Inc.’s production support vessel occurred on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015. The vessel is to be used by Nautilus and its PNG partner, Eda Kopa (Solwara) Ltd., as the base for its seafloor operations planned at the Solwara 1 project, in the Bismarck Sea of Papua New Guinea.
The ceremony took place at the shipyard of Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd. It was attended by the general manager of Fujian Shipbuilding Industry Group Co. Ltd., Xie Rongxing, the chairman, Zhang Zhitong, and general manager, Huang Yihao, of Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd., senior vice-president of greater China (ABS), Kwok-Wai Lee, Robin Reeves, chief executive officer of Marine Assets Corp. (MAC), and representatives from the MAC team. MAC will own and provide the marine management of the production support vessel, which will be chartered to Nautilus.
Mike Johnston, Nautilus’s chief executive officer, commented: “I am delighted that steel cutting has happened on schedule and in line with our plan to commence testing and initial production activities at Solwara 1. As we have now moved into the physical construction phase of the vessel, it was important to mark such a significant occasion. We have worked with Fujian Mawei Shipyard, MAC and others on our project for nearly a year now, and have established a very good relationship, which will continue over the coming years. Our objective remains to develop the world’s first commercial high-grade seafloor copper-gold project and launch the deepwater seafloor resource production industry. With the eyes of the world waiting to see the dawn of this new industry, we look forward to taking delivery of the vessel in December, 2017, to enable us to commence our seafloor operations in first quarter 2018.”
