17 September 2018
Fortune Minerals Limited is pleased to announce that it has received successful results of metallurgical test work verifying that it can produce an upgraded and essentially arsenic-free cobalt concentrate for the NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper development in Canada. Gold can also be recovered by Fortune from its metal concentrates at the mine site allowing the Company to control the gold revenue stream, while producing separate cobalt and bismuth concentrates for sale to third party processors after arsenic that is typically penalized is removed. The 100% owned NICO Project is a development stage primary cobalt asset with significant gold and bismuth by-products. Fortune has already received environmental assessment ("EA") approval and the major permits for the mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories as well as EA approval for a refinery in Saskatchewan.
Fortune engaged Dundee Sustainable Technologies Inc. ("DST") to conduct a metallurgical test work program to assess the application of its "Pyrolysis Roast" and "Arsenic Stabilization" processes on metal concentrates produced from the NICO Project. The objective of this work was to demonstrate that Fortune can remove the arsenic and create metal concentrates that are more attractive to the market and can be processed in existing metal recovery circuits operating around the world. The test work was initiated after several mining and refining companies contacted Fortune expressing interest in purchasing metal concentrates directly from the mine (see News Release, dated June 14, 2018). The DST processes have already been proven in pilot scale tests conducted for other gold and base metal projects as well as a development stage cobalt project with similar cobalt concentrate composition. A commercial plant utilizing DST's arsenic stabilization by vitrification process has also been constructed for a metal processing facility that will be commissioned later this year.
Key Results of DST Test Work: