The government of Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) held a ground-breaking ceremony in the community of Whati on August 24 to celebrate the commencement of construction of the Tlicho All-Season Road. This 97-kilometer (km), two-lane gravel highway will replace the existing winter ice road to Whati and provide a more reliable all-season connection to the Territorial highway system as part of the NWT Infrastructure Plan, according to Fortune Minerals.
Fortune’s NICO Cobalt-Gold-Bismuth-Copper Project is located 50 km north of Whati and the company plans to construct a spur road to the mine as part of its proposed development. The NICO Project is one of the few cobalt development assets outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The mineral reserves for the NICO project also contain more than 1 million ounces of gold.
NWT is working in partnership with the Tlicho and federal governments to develop the Tlicho Road. The government of Canada is providing up to 25% of the $213.8 million construction costs through the P3 Canada Fund. The NWT is funding the remaining 75%, using a private-public partnership (P3) structure with North Star, a consortium consisting of Kiewit Canada Development Corp. and the Tlicho Government, together with design-build partners Peter Kiewit Sons ULC, Hatch Corp., and Thurber Engineering Ltd. North Star will design, finance, construct, operate and maintain the Tlicho Road over a 28-year period for a total contract value of $411.8 million. The Tlicho Government has invested approximately $16 million to purchase a 20 per cent equity interest in North Star.
The Tlicho Road is expected to officially open to the public in 2022.
