Enables lower capital cost start-up option
of selling concentrates from the NICO mine site
Issued Capital: 347,303,220
LONDON, ON, May 3, 2019 /CNW/ - Fortune Minerals
Limited (TSX: FT) (OTCQB: FTMDF)
("Fortune" or the "Company")
(www.fortuneminerals.com) is pleased to report that it has
completed a metallurgical test work program verifying that gold can
be recovered from its cobalt and bismuth flotation concentrates at
the proposed NICO mine site in the Northwest Territories. The base case
development plan for NICO is a vertically integrated project
including a downstream refinery that was planned in Saskatchewan and where the gold would be
recovered by cyanide leach of the autoclave process residues. The
recent tests have indicated good gold recoveries can also be
achieved from the cobalt and bismuth concentrates that would be
produced at the mine site and enables the Company to sell
concentrates without significant reduction of gold revenues. This
is a key consideration should Fortune decide to defer construction
of a refinery as a lower capital cost start-up option.
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Fortune has been in discussions with potential strategic
partners and buyers for both of its cobalt and bismuth
concentrates. Some of these potential buyers could not recover the
gold that was contained in the concentrates and Fortune
therefore needed to demonstrate that it could recover the gold
at the mine site. This option has now been successfully
validated.
Metallurgical test work was completed at the Lakefield, Ontario facilities of SGS Canada
Ltd. ("SGS"), where most of the NICO testing and pilot work
has been conducted. The current work was performed to confirm
earlier tests that were carried out by Dundee Sustainable
Technologies last summer that had indicated attractive gold
recoveries could be achieved by cyanidation of metal concentrates.
The subsequent SGS program included both gravity and flotation
tests to determine gold recovery into the bulk concentrate and
confirmed that gravity will recover additional gold that was not
captured by bulk flotation. The combined gravity and bulk flotation
tests indicated an 88% recovery from higher grade ores of
approximately 5 grams of gold per tonne. This improved gold
recovery from higher grade ores is being incorporated into the
grade recovery model for the deposit and would be applicable to
both the sale of concentrate option and the vertically integrated
development option.
Cyanide leach tests were also carried out on each of the bulk,
cobalt and bismuth concentrates to verify that gold could be
recovered from them at the mine site. These tests demonstrated that
in order to achieve good secondary flotation to recover bismuth,
gold leaching needs to be carried out after secondary flotation in
order to achieve good cobalt and bismuth separation. The cyanide
leach tests conducted separately on each of the cobalt and bismuth
concentrates after secondary flotation conversely, demonstrated
good gold recoveries can be achieved at the mine site and confirms
that Fortune can sell these concentrates without significant
impairment to the gold revenue stream. Additional optimization will
be carried out in the future if Fortune plans to pursue the sale of
concentrate option for the development.
Fortune is completing an updated Technical Report for the NICO
Project, which includes a number of development scenarios,
including sale of metal concentrates and gold doré from the mine
site as well as constructing a refinery and processing of the
cobalt and bismuth concentrates to value added metals and
chemicals, including cobalt sulphate or carbonate and bismuth ingot
with gold doré also produced as the primary by-product. The results
of the gold recovery tests will be incorporated into the updated
Technical Report.
NICO is a primary cobalt deposit with mineral reserves that also
contain more than one million ounces of gold and approximately 12%
of global bismuth reserves. It is one of the few advanced cobalt
projects located outside of the Congo to mitigate risks from the geographic
concentration of supply in politically unstable countries and
support near-term accelerating demand. Cobalt is used in a number
of metal and chemical applications, but the greatest demand is in
lithium-ion batteries used to power portable electronic devices,
electric vehicles and stationary cells to store energy from
off-peak charging to make electricity use more efficient. Bismuth
is an eco-metal used primarily in the automotive and pharmaceutical
industries and has growing demand as a non-toxic and
environmentally safe replacement for lead in solder, brass,
aluminum and steel alloys and compounds and alloys that leverage
bismuth's expansion properties during cooling.
The disclosure of scientific and technical information
contained in this news release has been approved by Robin Goad, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and Chief
Executive Officer of Fortune, who is a "Qualified Person" under
National Instrument 43-101.
About Fortune Minerals
Fortune is a Canadian mining company focused on developing the
NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Project in the Northwest Territories. The Company owns lands
and other interests in Saskatchewan where it may build a
hydrometallurgical plant to process NICO metal concentrates.
Fortune owns the Sue-Dianne Copper-Silver-Gold Deposit located 25
km north of the NICO Project, which is a potential future source of
incremental mill feed to extend the life of the NICO Project
mill.
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This press release contains forward-looking information and
forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable
securities legislation. This forward-looking information includes
statements with respect to, among other things, the Company's plans
to develop the NICO Project and build a hydrometallurgical refinery
and the preparation of an updated technical report for the NICO
Project. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and
estimates of management as well as certain assumptions at the date
the information is given (including, in respect of the
forward-looking information contained in this press release,
assumptions regarding: the Company's ability to arrange the
necessary financing to continue operations and develop the NICO
Project; the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals for the
construction and operation of the NICO Project and the related
hydrometallurgical refinery and the timing thereof; the timing of
the updated technical report for the NICO Project and the results
thereof; growth in the demand for cobalt; the time required to
construct the NICO Project; and the economic environment in
which the Company will operate in the future, including the price
of gold, cobalt and other by-product metals, anticipated costs and
the volumes of metals to be produced at the NICO Project). However,
such forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks
and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events
or results to differ materially from those projected in the
forward-looking information. These factors include the risks that
the Company may not be able to finance and develop NICO on
favourable terms or at all, uncertainties with respect to the
receipt or timing of required permits, approvals and agreements for
the development of the NICO Project, including the related
hydrometallurgical refinery, the construction of the NICO Project
may take longer than anticipated, the Company may not be able to
secure offtake agreements for the metals to be produced at the NICO
Project, the economic impact of a hydrometallurgical refinery may
not be as positive as anticipated, the updated technical report for
the NICO Project may take longer than anticipated and the results
thereof may not be as positive as anticipated, the inherent risks
involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties
and in the mining industry in general, the market for rechargeable
batteries and the use of stationary storage cells may not grow to
the extent anticipated, the future supply of cobalt may not be as
limited as anticipated, the risk of decreases in the market prices
of cobalt and other metals to be produced by the NICO Project,
discrepancies between actual and estimated mineral resources or
between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries,
uncertainties associated with estimating mineral resources and the
risk that even if such resources prove accurate the risk that such
resources may not be converted into mineral reserves, once economic
conditions are applied, the Company's production of cobalt and
other metals may be less than anticipated and other operational and
development risks, market risks and regulatory risks. Readers are
cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking
information because it is possible that predictions, forecasts,
projections and other forms of forward-looking information will not
be achieved by the Company. The forward-looking information
contained herein is made as of the date hereof and the Company
assumes no responsibility to update or revise it to reflect new
events or circumstances, except as required by law.
SOURCE Fortune Minerals Limited
