Fortune Minerals Announces Arrival of Samples at SGS Canada in Lakefield, Ontario for Metallurgical Testing - Seite 3

The NICO Project will provide a North American vertically integrated supply of cobalt sulphate needed to make the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, portable electronics, and stationary storage cells. The development will also help mitigate concerns over the current sources of supply, notably including geographic concentration of 77% of global cobalt mine production in the politically unstable Democratic Republic of the Congo and China’s control over 80% of the world’s refined cobalt supply.

The NICO Deposit contains 12% of global bismuth reserves and is the largest deposit of this metal in the world. Production from the NICO Project would mitigate policy risks associated with China’s control over 75% of current bismuth production and provide a North American supply alternative that is exempt from the 25% U.S. Government tariff on Chinese imports. Bismuth has unique physical and chemical properties leveraged by the automotive, construction and pharmaceutical industries. Consumption of bismuth is growing as an environmentally safe and non-toxic replacement for lead in brass, solder, free-machining steel and aluminum, paints and pigments, glass, radiation shielding, and ammunition. Bismuth demand is also growing to make high-density metal plugs used to permanently seal decommissioned oil and gas wells to prevent greenhouse gas leakage and blowouts. An important developing market is the use of bismuth in permanent magnets to provide a superior and lower cost alternative to rare earth element magnets used in direct current electric vehicle motors.

For more detailed information about the NICO Mineral Reserves and certain technical information in this news release, please refer to the Technical Report on the NICO Project, entitled "Technical Report on the Feasibility Study for the NICO-Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Project, Northwest Territories, Canada", dated April 2, 2014 and prepared by Micon International Limited which has been filed on SEDAR and is available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Robin Goad, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and Chief Executive Officer of Fortune, and Alex Mezei, M.Sc. P.Eng. Consulting Metallurgist who are "Qualified Persons" under National Instrument 43-101.