Chromium/Platinum Group Metals

https://www.tbnewswatch.com/

THUNDER BAY — Officials in four northern Ontario centres including Thunder Bay are still waiting to hear Noront Resources’ decision on where it proposes to set up a ferrochrome processor. Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie all submitted bids to host the smelter for chromite mined in the Ring of Fire.

At the beginning of February, Noront said it had hired Hatch, a Mississauga-based engineering and consulting company, to help evaluate the bids.

In the same announcement, the company estimated that “the adjudication process will conclude in three to four months,” and said “a decision will be publicly announced at that time along with the criteria and rationale for site selection.”

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http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – Alan Coutts, a key man responsible for deciding the future location of a new chromite smelter in Northern Ontario, really likes what he sees in Timmins.

He said so in Timmins at the gala dinner for the Big Event Mine Expo held at the Senator Hotel Tuesday night. Coutts, the CEO and President of Noront Resources, was one of several high-profile mining executives invited to speak on the immediate future of mining in Northeastern Ontario.

As the head of the company that holds the greatest land position in the chromite mining development known as the Ring of Fire, Coutts will be among those in his company that will decide which Northern Ontario city will be selected as the primary site for a chromite smelter.

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http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Manufacturing of laminated wood timbers would be one way to boost the economy of the North, said Ontario’s Green Party leader Tuesday, while admiring a building constructed of that very material.

“We’re sitting on a gold mine here if we start utilizing new technologies and advanced manufacturing,” said Mike Schreiner, after a tour of the McEwen School of Architecture. “If you want to talk about a climate change solution, wood buildings are great because they have so much embodied energy in them and the trees store carbon emissions.”

Wood construction is also less energy-intensive than cement, he added, as the latter generates a lot of greenhouse gases in its manufacture. Schreiner said he could picture a series of plants in Northern Ontario that could produce cross-laminate timber — which utilizes wood that would otherwise go to waste — for the construction of prefabricated buildings across the province and even farther afield.

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https://www.sootoday.com/

Ontario Sault politicians are scratching their heads over a meeting planned next month in Toronto to announce a potential ferrochrome processing plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

At the Civic Centre tonight, a half-dozen city councillors told SooToday they had absolutely no knowledge of the Apr. 5 gathering at the swank Design Exchange museum, located in Toronto’s original stock exchange building at 234 Bay St.

“The Ring of Fire Limited Partnership cordially invites you to join Doug Ford, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party; with the Honourable Maxime Bernier opposition critic for innovation, science and economic development; and Jason Gauthier of the Missinabie Cree First Nation to review the virtues of making ferrochrome in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for a new North American stainless steel joint-venture with Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario,” said the invitation.

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http://www.thesudburystar.com/

A company with a stake in the Ring of Fire says the way to get the far north development to “come alive” is by doing business with the United States.

KWG Resources president Frank Smeenk told Postmedia that it’s time to look at the political realities of today and the future and the regulatory environments and what it all means to the massive mining development for the Ring of Fire.

KWG Resources is a mining exploration company with some land claim rights in the Ring of Fire. It wants to ensure that the mineral deposits extracted from the Ring of Fire — expected to last 100 years — are not subject to political whims in the future. Smeenk said his plan is to advance his ideas and concepts to supporters at an event to be held in Toronto on April 5.

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