talk
Mining Updates

Fortune Minerals Limited NICO Project Update

Wednesday, November 21, 2018 - 09:00 to 09:19 Theatre 2

Author(s)

R Schryer (Presenting)
Fortune Minerals Limited

R Goad
Fortune Minerals Limited

G Koropchuk
Fortune Minerals Limited

This presentation provides an overall update on the Fortune Minerals (Fortune Minerals) Limited NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper development (“NICO Project”) with emphasis on recent changes to project planning, development timelines and company activities. Fortune Minerals has received successful results of metallurgical test work verifying that it can produce an upgraded and essentially arsenic-free cobalt concentrate for the NICO Project. 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 engaged Dundee Sustainable Technologies Inc. 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. Fortune is evaluating the merits and conducting cost-benefit analysis of building a lower capital cost project that would produce concentrates vs. a higher capital cost project that would produce value added cobalt chemicals in a purpose-built refinery. The Company will evaluate the best development option in consultation with potential strategic partners and in consideration of their downstream product and commercial objectives. A technical report will be prepared to document the most commercially attractive project. Fortune has more than 35 confidentiality agreements with companies interested in strategic partnerships to build and operate the NICO Project.

On the socio-economic front, Fortune is a co-sponsor, together with the NWT government, and other industry, community and education partners, in delivering the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Mining Matters program to elementary schools in the NWT. The Company is also announcing funding for two educational awards for Tlicho students to participate in post-secondary studies in programs related to the resource industry.