Nico Deposit Location, Photo: Fortune Minerals

The Mackenzie Valley Review Board has released its Report of Environmental Assessment and Reasons for Decision for Fortune Minerals’ NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project. This is a significant milestone for the NICO project, see:

Fortune Minerals receives Environmental Assessment Board approval for the NICO mine & mill

Quoting Fortune Minerals IR Troy Nazarewicz, "The 100% owned NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project is a planned vertically integrated project consisting of an open pit and underground mine and mill near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and a hydrometallurgical refinery near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where Fortune will process concentrates from the mill to high value metal products. To date ~$100 million of work has been completed, including test mining, metallurgy and process pilot plants. The 2012 Front End Engineering & Design study has pre-production capital costs of C$441 million (includes $230 for refinery).

Fortune Minerals is working with Deloitte & Touche to attract a strategic partner(s) to provide project financing.  As a potential reliable Canadian-based producer of cobalt and bismuth, NICO presents an attractive opportunity for potential partners that need a secure source of these specialty metals. The countercyclical hedge provided by the approximately 1.1 million ounces of gold contained in the deposit, together with the low cash cost for metals net of by-product credits, will contribute to the sustainability of operations during periods of low metal prices.  Cobalt has growing consumption in superalloys and cobalt sulphate needed to manufacture high performance lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries used in portable electronic devices and hybrid-electric cars.  NICO also contains 15% of global bismuth reserves, which has growing use as a non-toxic and environmentally safe replacement for lead in a number of important metal alloys, industrial materials as well as other specialized products that leverage its unique physical and chemical properties."

More information: Fortune Minerals