Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX:FT) (OTCQX:FTMDF) (“Fortune” or the “Company”) (www.fortuneminerals.com) is pleased to provide an update on the progress of its 100% owned NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Project in Canada (“NICO Project”). 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.
NICO Project Progress Update:
Fortune has engaged Hatch Ltd. (“Hatch”), P&E Mining Consultants Inc. (“P&E”) and Micon International Limited (“Micon”) to update the NICO Project 2014 NI-43-101 Technical Report on the Feasibility Study (the “Feasibility Study”) based on design developments and improvements, current capital and operating costs, commodity prices and currency exchange rates. Responding to feedback from potential strategic partners, Fortune changed the scope of the project to include an up to 30% increase in the planned production rate over the 4,650 metric tonnes of ore per day used in the previous 2014 Feasibility Study. This increase in planned mine and mill throughput required much of the engineering to be re-done to provide the basis for equipment specifications and costing. Some improvements have also been made to the layout for both the mine and refinery sites. New Mineral Reserves are also being developed based on an optimized Mine Plan and Schedule incorporating a new grade control and stockpiling strategy to better align production of the metals with their markets and to selectively mine and process ores where possible to better optimize production, improve project economics, mitigate risk and improve margins in early years of the mine life. The back end of the cobalt and bismuth production facilities have also been improved to ensure the products meet the specifications required by the battery industry and to mitigate some identified commissioning and operational risks. The Bismuth Circuit is also being modified to eliminate electro-winning of metal cathodes following ferric chloride leaching to simplify the process and mitigate commissioning and operating risks. When the NICO Project is fully commissioned, it is expected to achieve peak annual production of approximately 2,000 tonnes of cobalt units per year in a battery grade cobalt sulphate heptahydrate (see Fortune’s news release dated November 9, 2017).
The current status of the work is as follows:
1) Additional Cobalt Sulphate Metallurgical testwork – Completed
2) Mine Plan incorporating grade control and stockpiling strategy – Completed
3) Mine site Lay-out – Completed
4) Updated Ore Reserves – Approximately 90%-95% Complete
5) Determination of concentrator and refinery throughput rates – Completed
6) Development of refinery Mass Balance – 95% Complete
7) Capex and Opex – Approximately 75% Complete
The updated Technical Report for the Feasibility Study is expected to be finalized by the end of the second quarter of 2018.