The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
The province is looking to end the stalemate over how to build a transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire chromite deposits by establishing a development corporation. Details are vague about the corporation announced Friday by Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle.
But the province is taking the lead — something critics argue it should have done years ago — to bring together mining, community, first nations and other partners, including the federal government, Gravelle said Saturday.
The corporation’s first job is to make a “clear decision” on the transportation corridor and use that as a vehicle to finance the project, said Gravelle. The corporation would manage the design, engineering, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure needed to bring mines in the Ring of Fire into operation.
Premier Kathleen Wynne has written Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking the federal government to make a substantial investment in $2 billion or more needed to build a transportation system and mine infrastructure.
Gravelle said there’s been no word from Harper or Kenora MP Greg Rickford, federal lead on the Rick of Fire, but they will be asked to share part of the investment.
The province has initiated individual conversations with potential partners and will eventually bring them together to discuss their common interests, said Gravelle.
It is clear they have at least one — and that is the Ring of Fire itself.
The Ring of Fire, about 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, is one of the largest chromite deposits in North America. It’s not just a provincial treasure, but a national one, said Gravelle, with an estimated $60 billion in resources and a mine life of up to a century.
The development corporation is based upon a model in northern British Columbia where a resource road, the Sierra Yoyo Desan, was built in a partnership between the province, and the forestry sector, and oil and gas companies.
“There’s lots of work to do to pull this together, but we need to break the log-jam,” said Gravelle.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/11/10/province-looks-to-end-ring-of-fire-stalemate