Fortune signs new option on Alberta cobalt refinery site, shares up
Fortune Minerals Ltd. (FT-TSX) said it has entered into a new option agreement with JFSL Field Services ULC to purchase a brownfield industrial site in Lamont County, Alberta where it plans to construct a hydrometallurgical refinery. The Alberta Refinery would process metal concentrates from Fortune’s planned NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories.
Fortune shares advanced on the news, rising 9.01% or $0.005 to $0.06. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of 13 cents and $0.025.
JFSL is a subsidiary of the Worley Group, an international engineering, construction management and environmental services company. Its shares are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. “Worley will be the preferred contractor for environmental engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction work for the Alberta Refinery,’’ Fortune said in a press release
Under an option agreement, Fortune can acquire the Lamont County site from JFSL for $6.0 million prior to the end of November, 2025, provided it makes monthly option payments of $100,000. The option payments and the $1.43 million 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 18 months following the sale to Fortune.
The JFSL site lies adjacent to the Canadian National Railway, northeast of Edmonton and is the site of a former steel fabrication plant.
Fortune has attracted investor interest because its flagship NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project in Canada’s Northwest Territories is one of the most advanced cobalt development assets outside the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The critical minerals asset consists of a planned mine, mill and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and related hydrometallurgical refinery in Alberta where concentrates from the mine would be processed.
The unique metal assemblage of the NICO deposit includes open pit and underground proven and probable reserves of 33 million tonnes, containing 1.1 million ounces of gold, 82 million pounds of cobalt, 102 million pounds of bismuth, and 27 million pounds of copper.
At the planned mill throughput rate of 4,650 tonnes of ore per day, the mineral reserves will sustain operations for 20 years, the company has said.
According to a 2014 feasibility study, that material could support average annual production for the first 14 years of a 20-year mine life (2020 mine plan), including 1,800 tonnes per year of cobalt in battery grade cobalt sulphate, 47,000 ounces per year of gold in dore bars, 1,700 tonnes per year of bismuth in ingots and oxide and 300 tonnes per year of copper in cement precipitate.