Nautilus Minerals Inc NUSMF

RE: Found: 100bn tonnes undersea minerals

[jsladek]

I think that the articles I have seen on this discovery really oversells this discovery. 

I think that this discovery is important, since it identifies a new area where mineral enrichment can be found - in this case REEs on the seafloor. It would be interesting to know if there are areas where the REE content is more or less enriched, and if so, if there is a scientific explanation behind the grade patterns (a sub-sea REE equivalent to the Thompson Nickel Belt, or the Carlin Gold Trend).  We know where the material that NUS is looking for can be found - vents near oceanic plate boundaries.

For the REEs, there is a big unknown in the economics of recovering this material.  I think that there is a limited time period where REE prices will be very high.  Once a few more mines are on stream (several companies with advanced projects are targeting 2015-2017) the prices will moderate significantly, and the volatility could be reduced. 

In principle recovering REEs from the ocean floor sounds quite easy:  Dig it up, slurry it up to a processing ship, dump acid on it to dissolve the REEs, recover 80-90% of the REEs, and count the money.   I read a few articles and couldn't find any reference as to how the (acidic?) tailings are remediated and where they go, but I'm sure that this is conceptually simple too (neutralize with base, pump back down to sea floor).

But ... look at how much effort NUS has had to go through to prove up their concept.  NUS had to figure out the following:

- customized seafloor tooling (exploration equipment and production equipment)
- riser system
- surface vessel
- port facilities
- refining facilities.

It has taken NUS years to get this far.  They have only got to where they are by having the resources of some big players behind them.