NEW YORK — Fortune Minerals Ltd. has completed the purchase of land to be used for a new refinery.

The planned Saskatchewan metals processing plant will convert concentrate from the company’s Nico gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper project in Canada’s Northern Territories.

The company purchased the 482-acre property near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for approximately Canadian $850,000 ($861,078), a company spokesman told AMM. The site straddles the main line of the Canadian National Railway and is near the Trans-Canada Highway.

The company will convert an average of 4,650 tonnes of Nico ore into 180 tonnes of bulk concentrate per day before shipping it by truck and rail to the refinery for processing, the company said.

The life-of-mine average annual metal production from the facility is expected to be 40,500 ounces of gold, 1,576 tonnes of cobalt, 1,670 tonnes of bismuth and 254 tonnes of copper.

The C$230-million ($233-
million) plant is expected to employ at least 85 people over a 20-year period based on Nico’s anticipated mine life, and the refinery’s operating life can be extended with third-party processing opportunities and participation in the metals recycling business, the company said.

Fortune is seeking C$450 million ($456 million) in financing for Nico, which is expected to start up in 2014 (amm.com, June 1).