VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Seafloor mining pioneer Nautilus Minerals continues to secure bridge financing from Deep Sea Mining Finance, with the latest advance of $3-million bringing the loans to date to $9.65-million, the company said on Tuesday.

The bridge loans are expected to form part of a larger secured structured credit facility of up to $34-million to be provided by the lender. The loans carry a coupon of 8%, payable bi-annually in arrears, with a one-year maturity date.

In conjunction with the latest advance, Nautilus has issued 12.89-million warrants of the company, entitling the holder to buy a Nautilus common share at C$0.205 for a period of five years from the date of issue. To date, Deep Sea Mining Finance has secured 41.45-million warrants.

The bridge loans will assist the company's immediate working capital requirements and facilitate payments required to continue the development of the company's seafloor production system to be first deployed at the Solwara 1 project, offshore Papua New Guinea, in the Bismarck Sea.

Nautilus also announced over the Easter weekend that its production support vessel (PSV) was launched on Friday at the Mawei shipyard, in China. The launch represented a significant milestone for the company, as the PSV is now 75% complete, with the vessel delivery currently scheduled for March 31, 2019.

The PSV provides a stable platform for operations using dynamic positioning technologies to ensure it stays on location at Solwara 1, irrespective of wind and wave conditions.

A February technical report on the Solwara 1 project showed that mining the seafloor for minerals will be a more cost effective and environment-friendly source of obtaining high-grade copper, gold and silver than land-based equivalents. Nautilus has a ‘first-mover advantage’ in this emerging industry and it is protected by intellectual property and 20 patents.

“Once our new vessel is delivered, and subject to final funding, mining operations at 1 600 m water depth is anticipated to commence in late 2019,” CEO Mike Johnston commented in a news release.