And going back to Friday's house meeting, the press also asked Minister of Sustainable Development Landy Habet about the land on the seabed Portico should expect to get from the Ministry of Natural Resources. He says it's not time yet:
Reporter
"One thing of interest that you didn't mention which came up in the minutes of meeting of that February 2nd, 2021 NEAC meeting and that is the use of the sea bed and permitting for that. The leader of the opposition has said that he checked with the minister of natural resources and no permit has been granted for that. My take away from the NEAC meeting was that this is one of the principal things that needs to complied with. You didn't mention that in the house. What's up with that?"
Orlando Habet, Minister Of Sustainable Development Climate Change, Disaster Risk Management
"That is not mentioned, because that is not part of the questions that was posed. So remember that they are in phase. There are 6 phases. It is the last phase, where construction will commence. During the first phase, it was basically to submit documents, the plan, but it had nothing to do with the actual physical construction, so even the DOE has not been out there to do any monitoring, because there is nothing to monitor. It's just the submission of documents and that is part of the first phase."
"So, I can't speak on behalf of Portico Enterprises Ltd. on a date or at which time during any of the phases that they will apply for their mining permit."
