COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND PERMITTING:
The proposed NICO development is
undergoing an environmental assessment (“EA”) in the NWT in order to permit the
mine and concentrator. With receipt of the EA Terms of Reference, Fortune
Minerals is working on the second phase of the process with preparation of the
Developers Assessment Report for receipt of permits in 2011 and planned
production in late 2012. The Company has been actively collecting baseline environmental
data at NICO and the surrounding area since 1998 through Golder and the Tlicho
aboriginal people have participated in the collection of this information.Work has
included traditional use, archaeology, socio-economics, vegetation, wildlife,
habitat mapping, hydrogeology, surface hydrology, water quality, fisheries,
meteorology and geochemistry studies. The Company is therefore well equipped to
complete the EA. Fortune Minerals has also been actively consulting with the
Tlicho Government on its proposed development, including the decision last year
to move the hydrometallurgical process plant to Saskatchewan. Fortune Minerals
intends to construct an environmentally sustainable project for the benefit of
all stakeholders.
Fortune Minerals is undergoing a concurrent permitting
process in Saskatchewan to construct its SMPP near Saskatoon. The decision to relocate
this plant to Saskatchewan was based primarily on economic criteria, but also because
of the significant support the Company received from the Saskatchewan
Government, through Enterprise Saskatchewan, and also the Saskatoon Regional
Economic Development Authority. Fortune Minerals has contracted MDH to conduct
a hydrogeology assessment, geotechnical soil investigations for the plant site as
well as environmental base line studies to support ongoing permitting
activities.
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