- Fortune Minerals (TSX:FT) has received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to advance its NICO project in the Northwest Territories and Alberta
- The company has received a US$6.38 million grant to expand the domestic capacity and production of cobalt for battery and high-strength alloy supply chains
- The funding will allow Fortune Minerals to advance the project towards a project construction decision
- Shares of Fortune Minerals are unchanged at C$0.06
Fortune Minerals (TSX:FT) has received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to advance its NICO project in the Northwest Territories and Alberta.
In a news release, the company stated it has received a US$6.38 million grant to expand the domestic capacity and production of cobalt for battery and high-strength alloy supply chains.
The company also revealed it has received funding from the Government of Canada for up to C$7.5 million to advance the NICO project.
The funding will allow Fortune Minerals to advance the project towards a project construction decision.
“It has been difficult attracting investment funding for essential Critical Minerals projects in traditional capital markets. We are therefore grateful for the U.S. Defense Department’s timely and strategic financial support to enable Fortune Minerals to accelerate development of the NICO Project to provide additional domestic capacity and security of supply,” Robin Goad, CEO of Fortune Minerals, said in a statement.
Funding will allow Fortune Minerals to complete work in four focus areas to advance the project to a finance decision, including:
- metallurgical testing to optimize the Alberta refinery site hydrometallurgical processes
- securing remaining authorizations and preparation of management plans to construct and operate the NICO mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories
- securing the required permits to construct and operate the hydrometallurgical refinery at the brownfield site in Alberta’s industrial heartland
- completing an updated feasibility study
The NICO Project is an advanced development stage critical minerals asset composed of a planned open pit and underground mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and a related hydrometallurgical refinery in Alberta to process concentrates from the mine to value-added metals and chemicals.
Once the project is fully developed, it is anticipated the NICO project will become a reliable supplier of cobalt sulphate in North America for the lithium-ion rechargeable battery industry.
The NICO Project is projected to have an average annual production of 1,800 metric tons of cobalt, 47,000 troy ounces of gold, 1,700 tons of bismuth in ingots, and 300 tons of copper.
Funding will help support 75 per cent of the costs for additional engineering and test work, totalling approximately $10 million through the Global Partnerships Initiative.
Fortune Minerals is focused on developing the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper Critical Minerals project in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. Fortune also owns the satellite Sue-Dianne copper-silver-gold deposit 25 kilometres 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.
Shares of Fortune Minerals (TSX:FT) are unchanged at C$0.06.
Join the discussion: Find out what everybody’s saying about this stock on the Fortune Minerals Bullboard investor discussion forum, and check out the rest of Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.
The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. For full disclaimer information, please click here.