NICO Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth Deposit
Fortune's 100%-owned NICO gold-cobalt- bismuth-copper deposit is the largest known IOCG (Olympic Damtype) deposit in Canada.
Discovered by Fortune in 1996, NICO has had more than $65 million of work carried out and is now in the environmental assessment process to permit a combined open pit and underground mine and process plant. Notably, most of the pre-production development for the underground part of the mine has already been completed as part of two $10 million test mining programs conducted in 2006 and 2007. The mining conditions, geometry and grade of the deposit were verified and a composite sample of ore collected for a $5 million pilot plant test that was recently completed at SGS Lakefield Research Limited in Ontario. This pilot plant proved the process flow sheet and production of high quality metal products, and also improved the recoveries for metals from earlier estimates that were used in the Company's definitive feasibility study prepared by Micon International Limited in 2007. Fortune Minerals is in discussions with financial institutions for a senior debt facility to finance construction of the mine and ancillary facilities.
NICO is located 160 kilometres northwest of the City of Yellowknife in the southern part of the Northwest Territories. The project is only 22 kilometres west of the Snare hydro complex, 50 kilometres north of the community of Whatì, and 85 kilometres north of Behchoko and the highway to Edmonton, Alberta. Although currently accessible by winter road, the Canadian, Northwest Territories and Tlicho governments, together with private industry, are re-aligning this road for upgrade to an all-season gravel road.
Mount Klappan Anthracite Coal Project
Fortune's wholly-owned Mount Klappan project in northwest British Columbia contains 231 million tonnes measured and indicated and 2.57 billion tonnes inferred and speculative of high rank anthracite coal (see reserve and resource table below) making this the largest undeveloped deposit in North America and one of the largest in the world. More than $85 million of work has been carried out at Mount Klappan by Fortune Minerals and also by Gulf Canada Resources Limited prior to being taken over by ConocoPhillips. This included test mining of more than 200,000 tonnes of coal for processing in a pilot plant test at the site and producing 100,000 tonnes of various coal products for trial cargos to customers in North America, Asia and Europe. Mount Klappan is the only near-term anthracite development in the western world and is in the environmental assessment process to permit a mine, process plant and related infrastructure to sell metallurgical coal products to the overseas steel industry. Fortune is actively pursuing a strategy to partner the project.
Fortune's coal licenses cover more than 150 square kilometres of lands straddling the B.C. Railway right-of-way,150 kilometres northeast of the port of Stewart and 330 kilometres northeast of the port of Prince Rupert. The rail bed provides road access to the site from Highway 37, and track has been installed to within 150 kilometres south of the proposed mine.
Sue Dianne Copper-Silver Deposit
Fortune's 100% owned Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit contains a near-surface Mineral Resource that is amenable to low-cost, open pit mining with a low waste to ore strip ratio.The current indicated Mineral Resource contains 149.1 million pounds of copper, 855,000 ounces of silver and 19,000 ounces of gold and the current inferred Mineral Resource contains 28.3 Million pounds of copper, 122,000 ounces of silver and 3,600 ounces of gold. The deposit remains open for expansion to the east at depth. Sue-Dianne is located only 25 kilometres north of Fortune's NICO deposit and proposed mill and concentrator. Metallurgical tests carried out at SGS Lakefield indicate high recoveries can be achieved for copper, silver and gold from this deposit using simple flotation. A high value cathode copper product can also be produced by pressure acid leach and electro-winning in a similar plant to that which is proposed for NICO. Sue-Dianne, therefore, presents an excellent opportunity to supply incremental mill feed to extend the life of the NICO process plant.