8 June 2020
Fortune Minerals Limited is providing an update of cost saving measures it has taken to preserve working capital during the market uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Fortune continues to make progress with a number of NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Project (“NICO Project”) optimizations completed using internal resources to enhance project economics at prevailing metal prices. The Company is also pleased to report that construction of the Tlicho All-Season Road for the Government of the Northwest Territories has resumed.
The NICO Project is an advanced development asset comprised of a planned mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and a related refinery in southern Canada where metal concentrates would be processed to cobalt sulphate, gold doré, bismuth ingots and oxide, and copper precipitate. The cobalt and bismuth contained in the NICO Project Mineral Reserves are identified on the United States and European Union Critical Mineral Lists based on their essential use in important manufacturing and defense industries, the fact that they cannot be easily substituted with other minerals, and the vulnerability of their supply chains to geographic concentration of production and geopolitical risks. The Mineral Reserves also contain more than one million ounces of gold, providing a liquid, countercyclical co-product to mitigate technology metal price volatility. The NICO Project has already been assessed in a positive Feasibility Study by Micon International Limited in 2014 (“2014 Feasibility Study”) (see Fortune news release, dated April 2, 2014).
For more detailed information about the NICO Mineral Reserves and certain technical information in this news release, please refer to the Technical Report on the NICO Project, entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the NICO-Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Project, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated April 2, 2014 and prepared by Micon International Limited which has been filed on SEDAR and is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.