The company planning to drill for copper and gold off Papua New Guinea says it is setting a new benchmark in its environmental planning.
Concerns have been raised in PNG, that the government hasn't done financial due diligence, or looked at the environmental impact of the project.
Nautilus Minerals has been granted the twenty year lease to develop its copper-gold project by searching for mineral deposits across almost 60 square kilometres of sea floor in the Bismarck Sea.
The CEO of Nautilus Minerals, Stephen Rogers, says it is natural for people to be worried about the impact.
"There is a lot of sensitivity around the oceans at the moment. We've taken, we believe a very responsible approach, and set a strong and enviable benchmark for the opening of this new industry. We brought in 15 or 16 independent scientific research groups to work with us."
Stephen Rogers says the PNG government has done very thorough financial due diligence programme over the past 2 years.
