Fortune Minerals secures additional funding to build Alberta refinery

Fortune Minerals (TSX: FT) says it plans to accept a small loan from the Northwest Territories to buy a refinery site for the world’s largest bismuth deposit. 

The C$3.8 million ($2.7 million) in aid announced Monday brings to nearly C$21 million in support from American and Canadian government levels for the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project 160 km northwest of Yellowknife. The refinery is proposed for just east of Edmonton in Alberta’s Lamont County, about 1,500 km south of NICO.

“With this key Alberta refinery site secured, Fortune will be able to move the vertically integrated NICO project closer to a construction decision, while also removing a significant development risk,” Fortune Minerals president and CEO Robin Goad said in a release.

Nico is envisioned as an open pit and underground mine and concentrator. It received $6.38 million last year from the Pentagon in its push to support Western supply chains for battery minerals. Natural Resources Canada has granted C$7.5 million towards C$10 million in engineering and test work expenses.

Shares in Fortune Minerals gained 6% to C$0.095 apiece on Monday in Toronto, valuing the company at C$53.6 million.

Resource

The project hosts 33.1 million tonnes in reserves grading 0.11% cobalt, 1.03 grams gold per tonne, 0.14% bismuth and 0.04% copper for contained metal of 82.3 million lb. cobalt, 1.1 million oz. gold, 102.1 million lb. bismuth, and 27.2 million lb. of copper, according to figures reaffirmed in the company’s 2023 investor materials.

The estimates, based on a 2014 NI 43-101 technical report, calculate the deposit holding 12% of global bismuth reserves. Bismuth is used in products such as Pepto Bismol. Refineries for battery metal cobalt are rare outside of China as the West seeks to reduce dependence on the Asian giant that controls most metals processing.

The refinery site is 76.78 acres (31 hectares) of land near the Canadian National Railway in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, an association of five municipalities northeast of Edmonton. They have planning approvals already in place for industrial development and tax incentives keyed to capital investment.

“The validation and combined support from the governments have allowed the project to move forward during a challenging environment at a quicker pace than would have been possible with support from only one government,” Goad said last month in an emailed reply to questions. “The US support was a catalyst for additional Canadian government support.”