N.W.T. mining projects eye roads to get them up and running (CBC News North – November 26, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Two mining projects in the Northwest Territories looking to cash in on the growing demand for batteries that are key in the battle against climate change are inching forward.

Robin Goad, the president and CEO of Fortune Minerals, the company that owns the NICO project, a cobalt, bismuth, gold and copper deposit about 50 kilometres northeast of Whatì, provided an update on the project during a virtual appearance at a geoscience conference held in Yellowknife Thursday.

A new all-season road set to officially open on Tuesday is already making the NICO project more accessible, he said. The 97-kilometre Tłı̨chǫ Highway will mean the community of Whatì, which was previously only accessible via an ice road for several months of the year, will now be accessible year-round.

Goad called it “a key enabler” for NICO. The company has already been helicoptering materials from the end of the road to the project site. “It allows us now to eliminate building an airstrip. A lot of facilities are now redundant, we can eliminate those saving capital costs,” he said.

For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-mining-projects-eye-roads-to-get-running-1.6263189