Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1012424
44 www.resourceworld.com A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 Nighthawk is backed by a number of high profile investors, including Kinross Gold Corp. [K-TSX, KGC-NYSE], Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. [OR-TSX, NYSE] and financier Robert Cudney's Northfield Capital. Fortune Minerals Ltd.'s [FT-TSX] NICO Project is attracting renewed interest, thanks to the recent surge in the price of cobalt. The NICO deposit is located 160 km northwest of Yellowknife. It contains open pit and underground proven and probable reserves of 33 million tonnes containing 1.1 million ounces of gold, 82 million pounds of cobalt, 102 million pounds of bismuth, and 27 million pounds of copper. At a previously planned mill throughput rate of 4,650 tonnes of ore per day, that material was expected to sustain a mining operation for 20 years. An April 2014 Technical Report envisaged a scenario where the site would be mined by a combination of open pit and underground methods, producing a bulk gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper-concentrate in a processing plant located at the mine site. The bulk concentrate would be bagged at the project site, transported by road to a rail head at Hay River, NWT, and then hauled by rail to a metals processing plant in Saskatchewan, a new hydrometallurgical facility to be built by Fortune at a permitted site, approximately 26 km north of Saskatoon. When that Technical Report was announced in 2014, cobalt was selling for US $16/lb. It has since jumped US $40/lb. Fortune President and CEO Robin Goad recently said the company has entered into approximately 30 confidentiality agreements with potential strategic partners from diverse busi- ness sectors. He said several of these companies are interested in purchasing metal concentrates directly from the NICO Mine for treatment in their existing process facilities. Canadian Zinc Corp. [CZN-TSX; CZICF-OTCQB] has said its long term aim is to bring the Prairie Creek Mine in the Mackenzie Mountains into production as soon as possible. In keeping with that goal, company shareholders recently approved a reorganiza- tion plan that would separate the company into a publicly listed holding company, NorZinc Ltd., and a wholly-owned operat- ing subsidiary, Canadian Zinc Corp. Don MacDonald recently replaced John Kearney as CEO. Equitorial Exploration Corp. [EXX-TSXV, EQTXF-OTC] is developing four significant, 100%-owned lithium projects in North America. They include the Little Nahanni pegmatite prop- erty which is adjacent to the Yukon border. The property does not contain NI 43-101 compliant reserves. However, grades of up to 2% Li 2 O and 500 g/t Ta 2 O 5 have been reported in individual dykes on the property. Archon Minerals Ltd. [ACS-TSXV, AHNMF-OTC] holds stra- tegic properties in the Lac de Gras diamond mining region. Its WO Block Project is located 27 km from the producing Diavik diamond mine. While the company recently converted a joint venture interest in the Buffer Zone Project into a 2.3% gross production royalty interest (entitling it to 2.3% of the gross value of diamonds pro- duced from the Buffer Zone), the company still holds a 100% interest in some 200,000 acres of mineral leases which were for- merly part of the western Buffer Zone. It also retains interests in other diamond exploration properties in the area. The Buffer Zone surrounds the Lac de Gras core area. Archon announced in February that it received its first royalty payment of $815,532 from diamonds produced within the Ekati Buffer Zone, which is owned by Dominion Diamond Ekati LLC. From October 1, to December 31, 2017, Dominion produced diamonds exclusively from the Lynx pipe in the Ekati Buffer Zone. Sixty North Gold Mining Ltd. [SXTY-CSE, SXNTF-OTCQB, 2F4-FSE] is working on the Mon gold project near Yellowknife. The project, which Sixty North says is one of the most promising gold development opportunities in the NWT, is a quartz shear/ vein deposit that operated as an underground mine from 1989- 1997. It closed due to low gold prices. Sixty North has an option to earn an 80% interest in the project, subject to a 20% carried interest held by New Discovery Mines, the current property owner, and a 2.0% NSR royalty. Sixty North plans to conduct underground bulk sampling on the formerly-producing A-Zone and to conduct surface explora- tion work. The Mon property consists of 11 contiguous mining leases, and three mineral claims, covering 1,536 acres. Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. [MPVD-TSX, NASDAQ], and De Beers Canada are joint venture partners in the Gahcho Kue FAR NORTH