TORONTO – A major player in developing the much-touted Ring of Fire project in northern Ontario says it will consider pulling out if the Ontario government doesn’t ensure the company has access to the chromite deposit.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., a U.S.-based company that is prepared to spend billions of dollars on the massive mining project, has been unable to build an all-weather road to the site because it would cross land staked by a rival company.
If it can’t build the road, Cliffs will have to consider shutting down operations, said Bill Boor, vice-president of ferroalloys.
“I guess it would be fair to say that we have to think about it,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “We haven’t made any decision along those lines and we hope we don’t get to that point.”
But the project is in a “tenuous state,” he said. If the company doesn’t have a transportation route, it doesn’t have a project, he said.
“We’ve got a fairly high spend rate, so at some point in time, it’s only rational or, it’s kind of our responsibility to decide whether it’s wise to keep pushing,” Boor said.
Junior mining company KWG (TSXV:KWG) has staked the most viable corridor through very difficult wetland terrain for a potential railroad.
Cliffs, which suspended its environmental assessment activities in June, asked Ontario’s Mining and Lands Commission for an easement over KWG’s mining claims.
But the application was dismissed last month, essentially blocking Cliffs from using the land they need to build the road.
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