North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Fortune Minerals Ltd. Dec. 5 announced that it has received federal and provincial funding for Nico, a vertically integrated cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project that is slated to include a mine in Northwest Territories and a hydrometallurgical refinery in Alberta.

Lying about 150 road-kilometers (95 miles) north of the Canadian rail system at Hay River, Northwest Territories, Nico is a near-development stage mine project that includes an intriguing mix of critical and precious metals.

According to a 2020 development plan, an underground mine at Nico and an associated refinery to be built in Alberta would produce an average of 1,800 metric tons of battery-grade cobalt sulfate, 1,700 metric tons of bismuth, 300 metric tons of copper, and 47,000 oz of gold annually over the first 14 years of mining.

This project would offer a North American supply of three metals critical to the energy transition and high-tech manufacturing that complies with the sourcing requirements in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

In October, global mining company Rio Tinto entered a partnership with Fortune to investigate technologies for the recovery of bismuth and cobalt contained in the waste streams from Rio Tinto's Kennecott smelter in Utah, including an assessment of blending intermediate products produced at Kennecott with concentrates produced at Fortune's future Nico Mine in NWT.

Fortune Minerals Ltd.

A critical minerals enriched boulder was dug out of a pit excavated to provide aggregate for road work on Fortune Minerals' Nico cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper mine project.

"Working with Rio Tinto to recover metals from their co-product streams is part of our corporate strategy to expand production of critical minerals, and we are excited to be working with one of the world's premier mining companies on the first of these opportunities," Fortune Minerals President and CEO Robin Goad said at the time. "This collaboration could provide a solution to support greater production of the metals needed for the energy transition and growing sustainable economy."

Now, Ottawa is contributing up to C$714,500 in funds from the federal Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration Program to support Fortune's planned cobalt sulfate process pilot and other metallurgical test work.

In addition, Alberta Innovates, a province-backed corporation formed to promote innovation in Alberta, has conditionally approved up to $172,670 in funding toward the program.

The federal and provincial funding will support a mini-pilot at SGS Canada Ltd. to confirm certain design criteria and improvements to the Nico metallurgical processes. Samples from this program also could be used in future tests related to Fortune's collaboration with Rio Tinto.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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