Fortune Minerals Announces Arrival of Samples at SGS Canada in Lakefield, Ontario for Metallurgical Testing - Seite 2

Fortune prepared approximately 15 metric tonnes of ores from its existing stockpiles at the NICO Deposit in 2023, which were recently slung 10 km by helicopter to trucks on the winter ice road for haulage to SGS Canada Inc. for the completion of the first phase of the metallurgical program. The samples are being inspected for quality assurance, and this will be followed by crushing, grinding, and flotation to make gold-bearing cobalt and bismuth sulphide concentrates during phase two of the program. Phase three will consist of hydrometallurgical processing of the concentrates to address gaps needed for detailed engineering and validate process optimizations, including precipitation of a clean gypsum by-product from the autoclave waste residue to reduce disposal costs at the Alberta Refinery. Rio Tinto has also successfully demonstrated precipitation of a bismuth intermediate product from Kennecott smelter wastes in Utah. These will be blended with Fortune test products at SGS Canada Inc. to validate the recovery of the contained metals using the Alberta Refinery metallurgical flow sheet. A portion of Fortune’s costs for the metallurgical test work is being reimbursed by the Government of Canada with a grant from the Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration (“CMRDD”) program. Alberta Innovates is also providing financial support through their Clean Resources Continuous Intake Program (see Fortune News Release, dated December 5, 2023, and Natural Resources Canada News release, dated March 23, 2024).

Fortune has also secured an additional extension to the purchase option it has with JFSL Field Services ULC (“JFSL”) to acquire its brownfield industrial site in Lamont County, Alberta where it plans to construct the Alberta Refinery (see news release dated January 24, 2022). This 77-acre site has 42,000 square feet of serviced shops and buildings adjacent to the Canadian National Railway and is close to sources of reagents, skilled labour, and utilities already in place to service the Alberta petrochemicals industry and a nickel-cobalt refinery operated by another mining company. The JFSL site is an ideal location to construct the Fortune refinery and expand the Edmonton area as a Critical Minerals processing hub in western Canada. Fortune can complete the purchase of the JFSL facilities before May 15, 2024 by paying C$5.5 million, less payments already made, and subject to JFSL’s right to use the facilities during the eighteen months following Fortune’s completion of the purchase option.