Fortune Minerals Ltd (C:FT)
Shares Issued 116,076,976
Last Close 12/15/2011 $0.72
Friday December 16 2011 - News Release

Mr. Robin Goad reports

FORTUNE MINERALS ANNOUNCES NICO PERMITTING UPDATE

Fortune Minerals Ltd. has provided an update on the environmental assessment (EA) process currently underway in the Northwest Territories ("NT") to permit the mine and mill for the Company's NICO gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper deposit. The NICO project, which was referred to EA in February 2009, has completed an additional milestone by progressing to the Technical Meetings Stage.

The Developers Assessment Report ("DAR") for the NICO project, submitted in May 2011 to The Mackenzie Valley Review Board ("MVRB"), passed the conformity check in August with no deficiencies. The EA progressed to the Information Request Stage where interested parties that have reviewed the DAR submitted questions to the Company through the MVRB. Fortune received these requests, which consisted of 425 questions from 10 separate interested parties, in mid-October. Fortune completed its responses to these requests and has now advanced to the Technical Meetings Stage of the EA process. These meetings are scheduled for January 17-19, 2012 in Yellowknife.

Dr. Richard Schryer, Fortune's Director of Regulatory and Environmental Affairs, commented that, "we are proud of our team's comprehensive and timely response to the information requests, and with our continued progression through the EA process."

Fortune is concurrently working to secure a strategic partner to help finance the NICO project and has engaged Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance Canada Inc. ("Deloitte") as the Company's financial advisor. Deloitte was re-engaged after successfully helping Fortune secure POSCO Canada Ltd. as its first stage joint venture partner for the Mount Klappan anthracite coal project in British Columbia. Deloitte will assist Fortune in identifying additional potential strategic partners and in evaluating potential transactions.

The Company is also pleased to report that an aggregate of 6,383,277 of its publicly traded warrants that expired on December 5, 2011 were exercised at a price of $0.80 per share resulting in gross proceeds to the Company of approximately $5.1 million.

About the NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth Project:

The NICO Project is located 160 km northwest of the City of Yellowknife, NT and 50 km north of the Tlicho community of Whati. The 31 million tonne deposit will be developed using a combination of open pit and underground mining methods with ores projected to be processed at the rate of 4,650 tonnes per day in a mill at the site over an 18-year mine life. Other facilities that are planned at the site include a camp to accommodate employees working on a rotation basis, ancillary buildings and a 27 km all-season access road that will join the site to the proposed Tlicho Road connecting nearby communities with the highway to Yellowknife. The mill is expected to produce approximately 180 tonnes of bulk concentrate per day for shipment south to the Company's proposed hydrometallurgical refinery near Saskatoon for further processing to high value metal products. Fortune plans to be a significant, reliable North American-based supplier of high purity cobalt cathode and/or sulphate and bismuth ingot, together with gold dorAcopyright and by-product copper cathode and nickel precipitates.

We seek Safe Harbor.