Advertisement.
Fortune Minerals has secured a refreshed water licence and land use permit for its proposed Nico mine outside Whatì.
NWT environment minister Jay Macdonald signed off on key regulatory approvals, based on a recommendation from the Wek’èezhìi Land and Water Board, earlier this week.
Fortune Minerals’ vice president of environmental and regulatory affairs, Richard Schryer, said in a news release the company had carried out extensive dialogue aimed at addressing environmental and social concerns related to the project.
In April, regulators held a public hearing in Whatì at which Tłı̨chǫ Elders raised concerns about water use and environmental protection.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
The company “will continue to work with these governments and communities, and through the conditions outlined in the water licence, to make the Nico mine a successful project that we can all be proud of,” Schryer stated.
Earlier this year, Fortune Minerals and the Tłı̨chǫ Government were awarded up to $50 million in federal funding to help pay for an access road connecting the Nico mine to the territory’s highway system. The road currently ends at Whatì, about 50 km south of the mine.
The road would support mine construction and later be used to transport concentrates by truck to Enterprise, where they would be transferred to rail and shipped to a planned refinery in Alberta for processing.
An updated feasibility study for the Nico project – an important document for fundraising purposes – is under way.
The company said it will host a visit to the Nico site for a group of Tłı̨chǫ citizens and Elders on September 21, marking the start of a traditional knowledge study focused on the access road.
Fortune Minerals said it is targeting a final investment decision on Nico in 2027. Nico was one of five projects included in the prospectus for the federal government’s investment summit in Toronto earlier this week.
