A road to the Ring of Fire is ‘everything.’ Railway? Not so much – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 22, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Noront Resources exploration boss digs into the details of the 2021 exploration year

The mineral endowment in the Ring of Fire appears to be vast, deep, rich and long-lasting.

As compelling as the geological picture is of the world-class base and precious metal deposits in the Far North exploration camp, 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, all anyone wants to talk about is, what’s happening with the access roads?

It’s a topic of discussion too with Noront Resources, the leading mine developer in the James Bay lowlands. “The road is everything,” said Ryan Weston, the company’s vice-president of exploration, at a recent web gathering of the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association.

“Without the road there’s no Ring of Fire development, which means there’s no exploration.”

Noront holds eight mineral deposits of chromite, nickel, copper, zinc, platinum, palladium, along with 100 documented mineral occurrences with showings of gold, titanium, vanadium, diamonds and cobalt.

In his presentation, Weston drilled down into the details of the camp’s geology, explained what Noront has learned over two decades of exploration, and laid out some of the company’s upcoming exploration and development plans.

“The road has to happen,” said Weston. “These are base metal deposits and they will be base metal mines, and they’ll exist for a long time.”

For the rest of this article: https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/mining/a-road-to-the-ring-of-fire-is-everything-railway-not-so-much-3449081