The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper
Greater Sudbury has been formally selected as the site of Cliffs Natural Resources’ prized $1.8-billion ferrochrome smelter, The Sudbury Star has learned.
Announcements that Cliffs has upgraded its massive Ring of Fire project to the feasibility study stage, reached a number of key agreements with the Ontario government and chose Sudbury as the smelter site will be made simultaneously in Sudbury, Thunder Bay and at the company’s head office in Cleveland this morning.
Sources say agreements with the province about infrastructure in northwestern Ontario were key to advancing the $2.75-billion mining, transportation and smelting project to this stage.
Cliffs’ 2012 capital plan called for $150 million to develop the Black Thor mine site and $800 million to construct a near-mine concentrating plant. Cliffs’ Black Thor chromite deposits are 350 kilometres north of the town of Nakina.
The company estimates an integrated transportation system, including an all-weather road from Nakina to the minesite, would require a $600-million investment, which was not included in Cliffs’ initial project costs.