Fortune Minerals Completes New Option Agreement to Acquire the JFSL Alberta Refinery Site for the NICO Project Alex Mezei retained as Chief Metallurgist to supervise test work and process engineering
Fortune Minerals Completes New Option Agreement to Acquire the JFSL
Alberta Refinery Site for the NICO Project
Alex Mezei retained as Chief Metallurgist to supervise test work and process engineering
LONDON, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 19, 2024--Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX:
FT) (OTCQB: FTMDF) (“Fortune” or the “Company”) (www.fortuneminerals.com) is
pleased to announce that it has entered into a new option agreement with JFSL Field Services
ULC (“JFSL”) to purchase the brownfield industrial site in Lamont County, Alberta where it
plans to construct its hydrometallurgical refinery (“Alberta Refinery”). The Alberta Refinery
would process metal concentrates from Fortune’s planned NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper
mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories (“NWT”) (collectively, the “NICO Project”)
and provide a reliable domestic supply of Critical Minerals for the energy transition and other
new technologies. The Alberta Refinery will produce cobalt sulphate for the North American
lithium-ion battery industry, bismuth ingots (12% of global reserves) and copper cement - with
more than one million ounces of in-situ gold as a countercyclical and highly liquid co-product.
Fortune also has a process collaboration with Rio Tinto examining the feasibility of processing
materials produced from Kennecott Smelter wastes in Utah at the Alberta Refinery to increase
cobalt and bismuth production.
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Pursuant to the new option agreement, Fortune can acquire the Lamont County site from JFSL
for C$6,000,000 prior to the end of November 2025, provided it makes monthly option payments
of C$100,000. The monthly option payments and the C$1,437,500 previously paid by Fortune to
JFSL, are deductible from the purchase price. JFSL will be entitled to list the Lamont County
property for sale during the option period, subject to Fortune’s 90-day right of first refusal to
match any third-party offer. JFSL will also be entitled to continue using the Lamont County
property and facilities for the eighteen months following a sale to Fortune.
JFSL is a subsidiary of Worley Group (“Worley”), an international engineering, construction
management and environmental services company listed for trading on the Australian Stock
Exchange. Worley will be the preferred contractor for environmental, engineering, procurement,
fabrication and construction work for the Alberta Refinery.
The JFSL site is comprised of 76.78 acres of lands adjacent to the Canadian National Railway in
Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, an association of five municipalities northeast of Edmonton with
planning approvals and tax incentives designed to attract heavy industry. The JFSL site is a
former steel fabrication plant with more than 42,000 square feet of serviced shops and buildings
situated near the services, sources of reagents, and commutable skilled worker pool already in
place for the Alberta petrochemicals industry. These are expected to materially reduce capital
and operating costs for the Alberta Refinery during construction and operations.
Fortune is also pleased to announce that Alex Mezei, M.Sc. P.Eng., has joined the Company as
Chief Metallurgist. Mr Mezei will supervise the test work and process and design engineering for
the NICO Project, which the Company is advancing with the recently announced government
contribution funding totalling approximately C$17 million (see news releases dated May 16,
2024 and December 5, 2023). Mr. Mezei is a Chemical Engineer with a more than forty years of
diverse experience in international process engineering, test and pilot work, and economic
assessments for a broad range of commodities around the world. This includes 22 years at SGS
Mineral Services (“SGS”) in Lakefield, Ontario where he was Director, Engineering Technology
Services, Metallurgical Operations, and Senior Metallurgist and notably, where he supervised the
hydrometallurgical work for the NICO Project. Prior to SGS, Alex worked for Asea Brown
Boveri as an instrumentation engineer, as a process research scientist at the Institute for
Technological Engineering for Inorganic Chemistry and Nonferrous Metals in Romania, and as a
production engineer at the Phoenix Metallurgical-Chemical Plant in Baia-Mare, Romania. Since
retiring from SGS in 2016, Alex has worked as an Independent Consulting Metallurgist and
Director of Metallurgy for Planetary Technologies.
For more detailed information about the NICO Mineral Reserves and certain technical
information in this news release, please refer to the Technical Report on the NICO Project,
entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the NICO-Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper
Project, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated April 2, 2014 and prepared by Micon
International Limited which has been filed on SEDAR and is available under the Company's
profile at www.sedar.com.
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 NWT and Alberta. Fortune also owns the satellite Sue-Dianne Copper-
Silver-Gold Deposit located 25 km north of the NICO Deposit and is a potential future source of
incremental mill feed to extend the life of the NICO mill and concentrator.
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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 exercise of the option by the Company and
the purchase of the JFSL site, the construction of the proposed hydrometallurgical refinery at the
JFSL site, the potential for expansion of the NICO Deposit and the Company’s plans to develop
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 successful completion of the Company’s due diligence investigations on the JFSL
site, the Company’s ability to secure the necessary financing to fund the exercise of the option
and complete the purchase of the JFSL site, the Company’s ability to complete construction of a
NICO Project refinery; 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; 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 2021 drill program may not result in a
meaningful expansion of the NICO Deposit, the Company may not be able to complete the
purchase of the JFSL site and secure a site for the construction of a refinery, 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 Sue-
Dianne Property may not be developed to the point where it can provide mill feed to the NICO
Project, the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties and
in the mining industry in general, the market for products that use cobalt or bismuth may not
grow to the extent anticipated, the future supply of cobalt and bismuth may not be as limited as
anticipated, the risk of decreases in the market prices of cobalt, bismuth 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 Reserves and the risk that even if such Mineral Resources
prove accurate the risk that such Mineral Resources may not be converted into Mineral Reserves
once economic conditions are applied, the Company’s production of cobalt, bismuth 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.
Contacts
For further information please contact:
Fortune Minerals Limited
Troy Nazarewicz
Investor Relations Manager
Tel: (519) 858-8188
www.fortuneminerals.com