23 April 2019
Fortune Minerals Limited has entered into an option to purchase an alternative site to construct the proposed hydrometallurgical refinery that would process metal concentrates from the Company's planned NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Mine in the Northwest Territories. Fortune has been in discussions for several months with a number of municipalities that have indicated their interest in having the refinery built in their jurisdictions. The option agreement was executed for a parcel of lands that has already been planned for industrial use and meets the Company's infrastructure and services requirements.
Fortune has also been approached by other jurisdictions and agents representing landowners that want to attract the hydrometallurgical facility and the jobs and economic benefits it would provide. The Company will advance the municipal approvals required to develop the lands that are now under option while also evaluating the merits of these other properties, and will then select the best option for progressing the NICO project. Fortune is also completing an updated Technical Report for the NICO Project, which includes a lower capital cost start-up scenario of selling metal concentrates directly from the mine to defer construction of a refinery as an alternative to the vertically integrated development scenario.