The mining company Nautilus Minerals says an international arbitrator has ruled in its favour and compelled the Papua New Guinea government to keep its end of a joint venture agreement.
Nautilus is planning to mine copper and gold in Papua New Guinea territorial waters under the Solwara 1 deep-sea mining project.
The company had filed a notice of arbitration against the PNG government on June the first last year, regarding a disagreement about the parties' obligations under the joint venture and alleging the government had not paid its share of project development costs.
A former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, Murray Gleeson, declared that PNG was in breach of the state equity option agreement, which the parties signed in March 2011.
Mr Gleeson says the PNG government has failed to buy a 30 percent interest in the project on November the 7th, 2011 and has compelled it to comply with the agreement and pay its share of all project expenditure incurred to date.
