TIMMINS – A few dozen people gathered in the ballroom of the McIntyre Arena on Thursday for the Billions in the Ground investment seminar on Thursday. The seminar was part of the Big Event Canadian Mine Expo’s new focus on attracting investors for new mining projects to the trade show.
During the seminar, there were presentations made by several mining industry companies about their plans for the future and investment potential, backed up by reams of statistics, geological surveys and share price histories.
But the presentation that elicited the most curiosity and questions from the group of people at the seminar was that of Noront Resources chief executive officer, Alan Coutts. The topic was the Ring of Fire and the reasons why starting development of the Ring of Fire is taking so long.
The answer, said Coutts, is simply that jumping through all the legal hoops set out by the government and bringing sometimes sceptical First Nation communities on board takes time and can’t be rushed through.
“People are always asking me, ‘Why is it taking so long?’ Well, it’s because of working through those things. There’s two layers of government and nine individual First Nations that have traditional use of the land. Those things take time. Environmental assessments take time,” said Coutts. “We did of three-and-a -half years of work in the corridor we wish to access. That’s what it takes with environmental assessments these days to get infrastructure built.”
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.timminspress.com/2016/06/03/noront-open-to-kwgs-idea-of-rail-into-ring-of-fire