The Logic
Indigenous communities in the Ring of Fire stand to benefit greatly or suffer dearly in the race for critical minerals. Locals say their opposition to mining is misund
EABAMETOONG FIRST NATION, Ont. — In April, as Canada geese start to fly home from their winter retreat in the U.S., hunters in the Eabametoong First Nation head to the lakes and nearby creeks. As the sun sets over the remote Northern Ontario community, Dave Keeskitay, 40, returns from a hunt along what’s left of the melting ice road on Lornjack Bay. Sillouetted against a cotton-candy sky, he pulls a sled of goose decoys, his rifle slung over his shoulder. He bagged four birds that morning, but had no luck in the afternoon.
For hunters like Keeskitay in the remote communities south of the Hudson and James Bays, the seemingly endless peatlands and boreal forest are a lifeline. But the land that provides food and water to First Nations in the area also sits atop a potential treasure trove of critical minerals and precious metals, commonly known as the Ring of Fire, that could deliver communities here from poverty—or make survival in the region even harder.
“I’m just worried about the next generation growing up,” says Keeskitay, who, like many people here, is troubled by the growing government interest in spurring mining developments in Northern Ontario. When U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to annex Canada, he is, in many ways, eyeing the Ring of Fire. The wealth of chromite, copper, nickel, platinum, vanadium and gold in Northern Ontario are globally significant, part of the critical mineral wealth that, according to former prime minister Justin Trudeau, has Trump wanting to make Canada “the 51st state.”
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