VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Project developer Fortune Minerals plans to increase the production rate at its flagship Nico cobalt/gold/bismuth/copper project, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, by between 20% and 30%, in a response to feedback from potential strategic partners, the company announced on Thursday.

London, Ontario-based Fortune, which is busy with an update of the 2014 feasibility study for the Nico mine, said it plans to expand the previous base case production rate of 4 650 t/d to lift cobalt output to between 1 700 t/y and 2 000 t/y, the top end of which will reflect about 2% of global production.

“Transformative electrification of the automotive industry is accelerating as cost parity with internal combustion engines is being reached and as more governments announce future bans on gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. Forecasts of electric vehicle adoption are increasing, with estimates of up to 25% penetration of global vehicle sales by the mid 2020’s. Fortune is increasing its planned cobalt production in response to the growing cobalt supply chain bottleneck,” president and CEO Robin Goad said in a press release.

The Nico project consists of a planned mine, mill and concentrator in the Northwest Territories and a refinery near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where concentrates will be processed to cobalt sulphate, gold, bismuth and copper.

Fortune said the feasibility update will also re-evaluate the mineral reserves using higher cobalt prices and greater economies of scale from a higher production rate; optimise the mine plan and schedule to increase cobalt and gold output in the early years; implement a grade control and stockpiling strategy to better align bismuth output with market conditions as they evolve within a growing green economy; complete further metallurgical testwork to improve the manganese removal process from cobalt sulphate and indicate a potential cobalt recovery improvement; and study an improved copper cementation process.

Further, Fortune is undertaking design engineering and costing for the expanded scenario and it will also look at refining the project plan to construct the Northwest Territories facilities using existing winter roads to better align mine operations with the timeline for construction of the government road to Whati.

As it stands, the shovel-ready Nico deposit contains openpit and underground proven and probable reserves totalling 33-million tonnes containing 82-million pounds of cobalt, 102-million pounds of bismuth, 1.1-million ounces of gold, and 27-million pounds of copper. At the previously planned mill throughput rate of 4 650 t/d, the mineral reserves will sustain operations for about 21 years.

More than $115-million of work has already been conducted for the Nico project, and Fortune has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance to help secure the required C$589-million-plus mine capital.