Fortune Minerals Ltd (C:FT)
Shares Issued 68,240,857
Last Close 9/16/2009 $0.70
Thursday September 17 2009 - News Release

Mr. Robin Goad reports

FORTUNE MINERALS RECEIVES DRAFT TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR NICO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Fortune Minerals Ltd. has received the draft terms of reference (TOR) from the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB) for the environmental assessment (EA) for the company's Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories. Receipt of the draft TOR is a significant milestone in the permitting process to develop the Nico project. With the first half of the EA process nearly complete, the company is well positioned to move efficiently through the analytical phase of the EA.

The TOR outlines the environmental, engineering and socio-economic information that Fortune Minerals will be required to address in the EA. The draft TOR is open for comment by interested parties until Oct. 16, 2009, after which the TOR will be finalized and Fortune Minerals will have clear direction from the MVEIRB on the information that will be required to complete the EA. Fortune Minerals has already compiled the baseline environmental and engineering data required to characterize the predevelopment conditions at the NICO site and assess the impacts from its proposed development.

The Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project is located 160 kilometres northwest of the city of Yellowknife, 50 km north of the Tlicho community of Whati, and 80 km north of the highway to Edmonton, Alta. Fortune Minerals is permitting a combined open pit and underground mine to feed a conventional crushing, grinding and flotation mill, and related infrastructure at the Nico site to recover gold, cobalt, bismuth and copper in a bulk flotation concentrate. This concentrate will be trucked to the rail head at Hay River, NWT, for delivery by rail to a refinery the company will construct in Southern Canada where it will produce gold and high-purity cobalt, bismuth and copper cathodes (metals). Fortune Minerals is in negotiations with various landowners to purchase the property for this southern hydrometallurgical facility from a short list of sites in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Fortune Minerals has already purchased the Golden Giant mine buildings and equipment at Hemlo, Ont., from Newmont Canada Limited. These assets have been dismantled and are being stored at the Hemlo site for relocation to Nico upon receipt of the requisite permits. The Nico project has been assessed in a definitive feasibility study that shows an attractive rate of return for the development and has been successfully test mined and pilot plant processed to verify the mining and process conditions, and reduce project risk.

Fortune Minerals wishes to acknowledge this week's election of Joseph Rabesca as grand chief of the Tlicho government, which owns the lands surrounding the Nico project pursuant to an agreement completed with the federal and Northwest Territories governments. Prior to his retirement from politics in 2005, Mr. Rabesca was grand chief during the formative years in the development of Canada's diamond mining industry and this has been a model for aboriginal participation in mineral development and operations. Mr. Rabesca has stated that one of his priorities is to strengthen relationships and business opportunities with the mining industry. Fortune Minerals looks forward to working with his administration.

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