Cash-strapped Nautilus Minerals Inc. secured a lifeline after receiving a US$500,000 loan from Deep Sea Mining Finance Ltd. under an existing structured credit facility of up to US$34 million.

The seabed-mining hopeful recently said it needed to secure additional funds by Jan. 14 to continue operations.

Nautilus has been struggling to advance its Solwara 1 copper-gold-silver project off the coast of Papua New Guinea due to funding woes. In December 2018, the company outlined plans to form a joint venture with the aim of acquiring a production support vessel.

The company said Jan. 17 that it continues to assess its options, including a possible restructuring.

In connection with the US$500,000 loan, the company issued 2,147,766 warrants to Deep Sea Mining Finance. Each warrant enables the purchase of a common Nautilus share at 17 Canadian cents for five years.

Nautilus has issued 75,171,816 share purchase warrants to the lender to date related to loans totaling US$17.5 million that mature Feb. 8.