Business
Fortune Minerals commences NICO summer drill program
Fortune Minerals commences NICO summer drill program
About this update from Fortune Minerals Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n Jun. 16, 2010 (Canada NewsWire Group) -- Issued Capital: 94,779,407\n\n Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX-FT) ("Fortune Minerals" or the "Company") is pleased to report that it has commenced the previously announced summer drill program for its 100% owned NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories ("NWT"). NICO, located 160 km northwest of the City of Yellowknife and 50 km north of the Tlicho community of Whati, is undergoing an Environmental Assessment to permit a mine and concentrator in the NWT. The Company is also conducting a concurrent process to permit its proposed Saskatchewan Metals Processing Plant ("SMPP") near Saskatoon where it plans to process NICO concentrates to produce high value gold doré, and cobalt, bismuth and copper cathode metal products.\nThe NICO deposit currently contains Proven and Probable Underground and Open Pit Mineral Reserves of 31 million tonnes, averaging 0.91 g/t gold, 0.12% cobalt, 0.16% bismuth and 0.04% copper, containing 907,000 ounces of gold, 82 million pounds of cobalt, 109 million pounds of bismuth and 27 million pounds of copper (see News Release, dated January 14, 2010(1)). The current drill program is being conducted in order to test for extensions to the known mineral reserves where the orebody remains locally open for expansion at depth and along strike. In particular, there is good potential to expand the gold-rich, deeper parts of the NICO deposit. Additional holes are also being drilled to better define the upper limits of the deposit for detailed pit design and production scheduling in progress. Foraco Drilling Ltd. has been contracted to conduct the drilling, which is presently planned to include approximately 40 drill holes, totalling more than 5,000 metres. Results of this drill program will be announced as assay results become available.\nIn addition to expansion drilling, a large diameter hole is being drilled to the maximum depth of the proposed open pit for hydrogeological purposes to measure rock permeability and install a multilevel monitoring well to assess ground water quality in the deepest part of the proposed mine. Geotechnical drilling is also being conducted in the plant site area to assess bedrock quality for the design of building and equipment foundations. Approximately 30 employees ...