27 March 2018
Fortune Minerals Limited is pleased to provide an update on the progress of its 100% owned NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Project in Canada. The NICO Project is a development stage primary cobalt asset consisting of a planned mine, mill and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and hydrometallurgical refinery in Saskatchewan to process concentrates from the mine to cobalt sulphate, gold, bismuth ingot and oxide, and a copper precipitate. As a vertically integrated Canadian emerging producer of environmentally responsible, ethical cobalt and bismuth, NICO will be able to demonstrate supply chain transparency and custody control of metals from ores through to the production of value-added products for the growing green economy. Development of the NICO Project will help alleviate supply chain concerns from increasing cobalt demand in the rapidly expanding lithium-ion battery industry and geographic concentration of supply from the politically unstable Congo (~67% of mine supply), China (~80% of refined cobalt chemical supply), and its production primarily as a by-product of copper and nickel mining (~98% of non-artisanal cobalt mine production) where the primary metals determine production criteria.
The update includes details on:
The updated technical report for the feasibility study is expected to be finalized by the end of the second quarter of 2018. Provided Fortune receives the requisite financing for the NICO Project and the remaining regulatory approvals in 2018, construction of the mine facilities could begin in early 2019. Construction of the mine, mill, concentrator and related facilities in the NWT is expected to take approximately two years dependent on ice-road logistics, whereas the refinery requires about 18 months for construction.