[1] By 2019, the company had faced bankruptcy and was delisted due to long-standing environmental concerns about the project and financial turmoil, resulting in its assets being owned by Deep Sea Mining Finance Limited.

[2][3] The Solwara-1 project aimed to extract copper, gold, silver, and zinc from a seafloor massive sulfide deposit 1.6km below the surface of the Bismarck Sea, within the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea.

[4][6] A 2015 Nautilus-commissioned benchmarking report assumed that the proposed mine would produce 1,957,000 metric tons of mineralized ore of an average copper grade of 7% over the span of three years.

By the first quarter of 2019, the project faced major delays as it required $350m to commence mining; the company had drawn down half of a $34m credit line earlier in the year, and had only $200,000 in cash as of September 2019.

[7] In a presentation made to warn Canadian investors about the risks of investing in the company, the report was criticized by a coalition of Canada-based environmental groups such as MiningWatch Canada, for conflicts of interest and a lack of scientific understanding.

[13][14] A major issue raised with the project concerned the question of the “social license” — an idea originating from the World Business Council on Sustainable Development — which had become influential in the mining industry since the late 90s.

These laws required hearings to be held in the affected area to provide local “landholders” the opportunity to air their views and to register any objections (although it did not give them veto rights).

The company’s major creditors attempted to gain control of its assets but legal disputes over mining leases and concerns over environmental impacts complicated the process.

[25] Shareholders saw a sharp drop in the value of their investments, and creditors were expected to receive only a portion of what they were owed, including the Papua New Guinea government, which paid PGK 81.5m ($24m) in interest on loans relating to the Solwara-1 project.