Papua New Guinea: Nautilus Closes First Tranche of Private Placement for Solwara 1 Project

Nautilus Minerals Inc has received gross proceeds of C$70.5 million from the issue of the first tranche of shares forming part of the recently announced private placement.

A total of 27,987,853 shares were issued today in the first tranche at an issue price of C$2.52 per share.

The shares formed part of a total capital raising of C$98.1 million, before expenses, involving the issue of approximately 39 million shares. The remaining shares (approximately 11 million) are to be issued on October 6, 2011.

Application has been made to the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange for the first tranche of 27,987,853 shares to be admitted to trading on September 9, 2011. The shares also will be listed for trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The private placement has been made to provide funds for the construction of Nautilus Minerals’ seafloor resource production system, which initially will be deployed at the company’s first deepwater copper and gold project at Solwara 1, in the Bismarck Sea of Papua New Guinea.

As a result of the successful capital raising, Nautilus has today reinstated the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Management (EPCM) contract for the supply of the Riser and Lifting System (RALS) for the project. The RALS will transport mineralized material from the seafloor to a production support vessel approximately 1600 metres above. The EPCM contract, which includes the procurement of RALS components, has a target cost of US$115 million. The contract is with world leading oil and gas technology company Technip USA Inc. It is the final contract to be reinstated following the partial suspension of the Solwara 1 project in December 2008.

About Nautilus Minerals Inc.

Nautilus is the first company to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits and is currently developing its first development project at Solwara 1, in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea, where the company is aiming to produce gold, copper and silver. The company has been granted all necessary environmental and mining permits.

The company also holds approximately 600,000 square kilometers of highly prospective exploration acreage in the western Pacific, in PNG, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu and Tonga, as well as in international waters in the eastern Pacific.

A Canadian registered company, Nautilus is listed on the TSX and AIM stock exchanges and has its corporate office in Brisbane, Australia. Its major shareholders include Metalloinvest, the largest commercial iron ore producer in Europe and the CIS, which has a 21% holding, and global mining group Anglo American, which holds an 11.1% interest.

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Source: Nautilus Minerals, September 09, 2011;