Fortune Minerals secures loan to build Alberta refinery site for NICO project

[Ben Graham]

Fortune Minerals (TSX: FT) announced Monday that it has entered into a binding offer letter for a loan of C$3.8 million ($2.7 million from Prosper NWT, a public agency of the Government of Canada’s Northwest Territories.  

The loan will enable Fortune to complete the purchase of the Lamont County, Alberta refinery and existing facilities from JFSL Field Services LLC where the company plans to construct a hydrometallurgical facility to process concentrates from the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper mine in the NWT. 

The NICO project is an advanced-stage asset consisting of a proposed open pit and underground mine and concentrator. Anchoring the mine is a cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper deposit containing 33.1 million tonnes in reserves at grades of 0.11% cobalt, 1.03 g/t gold, 0.14% bismuth and 0.04% copper. 

In March, the critical minerals developer secured additional funding from both the Canadian and US governments for its flagship NICO project. 

The domestic funding, courtesy of Natural Resources Canada, amounts to C$7.5 million ($5.5 million), expected to cover 75% of the C$10 million in additional engineering and testwork for the project. Separately, the company was awarded $6.38 million by the US Department of Defense to expand the capacity and production of cobalt for the battery and high-strength alloy supply chain. 

Fortune Alberta, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortune Minerals, will provide the Refinery Site, buildings and equipment as security for the loan, which will also be guaranteed by the company.  

“With this key Alberta refinery site secured, Fortune will be able to move the vertically integrated NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper critical minerals project closer to a construction decision, while also removing a significant development risk,” Fortune Minerals Robin Goad said in a news release.    

“We are grateful for this financial commitment from Prosper NWT demonstrating the importance of the critical minerals industry to the economy of Canada’s North,” Goad said.  

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 the planning approvals already in place for industrial development and tax incentives keyed to capital investment.