Some more good news:-
NEWS RELEASE (date: 28/July/04) from Fortune Minerals (TSX, Symbol FT)
FORTUNE MINERALS ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF MARSTON TO CONDUCT MOUNT
KLAPPAN FULL FEASIBILITY STUDY
Fortune Minerals Limited is pleased to announce the selection of Marston Canada Ltd.
(Marston) as its engineering consultant to prepare an updated full feasibility study assessing
the economics of the Company’s 100% owned, Mount Klappan anthracite coal project in
northwest British Columbia. Marston is a subsidiary of Marston and Marston Inc., a St. Louis
based full-services mining consulting organization with offices in the U.S.A., Canada and
Australia. Marston furnishes management consultation, engineering, geologic,
environmental, and coal market and contracts services to the mining industry with an
emphasis on the coal and oils sands industries. Marston has had a long-standing
involvement with the Mount Klappan project, being one of three companies selected by the
previous owner, Gulf Canada Resources Limited (Gulf) to prepare the 1991 full feasibility
study. That study indicated an attractive rate of return for the development but is now out of
date. Fortune Minerals initially retained Marston to conduct due diligence confirmation of the
resources for its 2002 acquisition of Mount Klappan. They subsequently prepared a new
digital block model and re-estimated the resources for the Lost-Fox deposit, where mining is
initially contemplated. More recently, Marston completed a study of the anthracite market,
which indicates significant growth in consumption, particularly low volatile pulverized coal
injection (PCI) products used in the steel industry. Richard Marston, P.E. is the qualified
person responsible for work on the Mount Klappan project for the purposes of National
Instrument 43-101.
Mount Klappan contains large resources of high-quality, low-sulphur anthracite rank coal in four known deposits straddling the BC Rail right-of-way, 150km northeast of the port of Stewart, and 330km northeast of the port of Prince Rupert. The railway sub-grade currently
provides truck access to the site, and track has been installed to within 70km south of the
property. The Canadian National Railway Company is expected to close their acquisition of
BC Rail shortly and has indicated its intention to provide a proposal to extend track to the
site. The Mount Klappan deposits contain Measured and Indicated resources totalling 230.9
million tonnes, Inferred resources of 359.5 million tonnes and 2.213 billion tonnes in the
Speculative class. Most of the resources are contained in the Lost-Fox deposit.
The updated full feasibility study will assess a conventional truck and shovel open pit
operation and wash plant with heavy media separation. Employees would work on a
rotational basis and be housed at a camp constructed at the site. Previous studies assessed
a mining rate of 2.6 million tonnes of “run of mine” anthracite per annum to produce 1.75
million tonnes of clean coal at 67% recovery, and a clean coal strip ratio of 8:1 BCM/tonne.
The current study will determine reserves and optimize production levels, recoveries and strip
ratios to reflect today’s improved market conditions. The flow sheet will also be optimized for
production of a bulk PCI product with 10% ash for the steel industry, and a lesser quantity of
value added, specialty coarse and sized products. The coal would be shipped by rail to
customers in Canada and the USA, as well as overseas export markets from the Ridley
Island coal terminal at Prince Rupert. The study is expected to be complete by the end of
this year.
Fortune Minerals acquired a 100% interest in the Mount Klappan project in 2002 from a
Canadian subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, following their earlier takeover of Gulf. Gulf carried
out significant work at Mount Klappan between 1981 and 2001, including resource
delineation, test burns, and transportation, marketing, environmental and feasibility studies.
A 200,000 tonne bulk sample was collected in 1985-86 and product quality verified in
100,000 tonnes of finished coal products produced in a pilot plant constructed at the site for
trial shipments to select customers in North America, Asia and Europe. Fortune is very
pleased to be in a position to assess the economics of the Mount Klappan project in a
favourable capital market with high coal prices and a political regime in British Columbia that
encourages mineral development.
Fortune Minerals is a diversified natural resource company with seven mineral deposits and a
number of exploration projects, all located in Canada. They include the NICO gold-cobaltbismuth
deposit, the Sue-Dianne copper-silver deposit and other base and precious metals
exploration projects in the Northwest Territories. In British Columbia, Fortune owns the
Mount Klappan anthracite coal deposits, and in Ontario, it is the managing partner of
Formosa Environmental Aggregates Ltd., an industrial mineral company developing the
Greenock high calcium limestone quarry. Fortune Minerals is a company focused on the
creation of value through the assembly and development of high quality natural resource
projects.
Further information can be obtained from Fortune Minerals Limited at:
Tel. 519-858-8188,
Fax. 519-858-8155,
E-mail. info@fortuneminerals.com,
fortuneminerals.com
and/or visit
FORTUNE MINERALS LIMITED
148 Fullarton Street, Suite 1508, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5P3
Tel. 519-858-8188 ~ Fax. 519-858-8155 |
