It was almost two years ago when Fortune Minerals learned that the R.M. of Corman Park had voted against having the mining company’s refinery built there, and now the final decision on a site that may or may not be in Saskatchewan will happen in the next few months.
President and CEO Robin Goad explains that his company was enticed by the province, the R.M. and SREDA to build the refinery near Saskatoon, but after years of going through the paperwork and passing the environmental assessment at a cost of millions of dollars, an election brought new leadership to the R.M. and the refinery was nixed because of local opposition.
He says, “the politicians caved and there was no science-based appeals process.”
Since then, Fortune Minerals has been scouting other areas and they are primarily in Alberta, however there are some sites in Saskatchewan, and the Manitoba government has been encouraging them to situate there.
Goad estimates the capital cost of building a refinery at about $375-million, which helps the local economy, and 100 jobs with an annual payroll of $100-million because these are high paying jobs for skilled positions.

The NICO  project would see a mine and mill in the Northwest Territories and a refinery further south.
It would mine cobalt, bismuth  and a million ounces of gold.
Goad explains that cobalt is used in high performance rechargeable batteries and says there is growing demand because of electric vehicles, portable electronic devices and batteries being used as energy storage from the power grid when demand is not at maximum.
Bismuth is used in the automotive sector for anti-corrosion coatings and the biggest demand growth is to be a non-toxic replacement for lead, for instance in solders in the plumbing and electronics industries.
Goad says having these resources that are used in technology materials being produced in Canada is an exciting opportunity, because you can’t manufacture products without the raw materials.