China Rail engineers, KWG resources crew surveys for Ring of Fire railroad (CBC News Thunder Bay – April 13, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

Railway could be built in about 3.5 years, at a cost of up to $2 billion, KWG Resources official says

A group of engineers from China have spent their day surveying a potential rail line to access the Ring of Fire.

Seven engineers from China Rail, along with officials from KWG Resources went by helicopter from Thunder Bay today. KWG vice-president Moe Lavigne said the engineers will check over the area that was first surveyed in 2010.

“This is the best time to do it, because what they’re really interested in is seeing the ice conditions,” he said.

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Railways feel the brunt of commodities slump – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – April 11, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s two major railways are seeing the plunge in prices and demand for industrial commodities firsthand. The number of carloads hauled by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. has fallen more than 9 per cent this year, excluding container traffic.

The decline is led by a 29-per-cent drop in carloads of metallic ores and metals, and a 15-per-cent slump in coal, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), which includes U.S. operations of CN and CP. Carloads of oil and other petroleum products are down by 12 per cent.

Despite the declines in traffic, both carriers are expected to post higher profits this month, thanks to tight controls over costs, staffing levels and pricing power.

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Trudeau still has eyes on the Ring of Fire – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 8, 2016)

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hinted that federal support in some form could be announced soon related to the stalled Ring of Fire mineral project.

Trudeau dropped that tidbit of information during a March 7 visit to Sudbury to announce long-awaited federal funds for Maley Drive, a critical arterial road infrastructure project that’s been 30 years in the making.

When asked by a reporter if an access road could be built into the remote mineral belt by this summer, Trudeau responded: “We know that the Ring of Fire means good jobs, means continuing development of the North in ways that hopefully will build the kind of sustained partnerships with Indigenous communities that have been too long absent from the economic growth landscape.”

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Trudeau announces $26.7M for Sudbury [mining] road project – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – April 8, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

The Maley melee is finally over and the road will be built. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped by the Nickel City on Thursday to deliver a message and several million dollars for the Maley Drive extension project.

With a current price tag of $80.1 million for phase one, a three-way cost-sharing agreement will see the municipal, provincial and federal governments each contributing $26.7 million. The money comes from the Building Canada Fund and is part of about $120 billion the Liberals pledged to spend on infrastructure over 10 years in the budget they presented in March.

“This funding will help to create good jobs, better our communities and grow the middle class,” Trudeau said to a clapping crowd. “This $26.7 million investment will fund the creation of a new, much needed east-west arterial link through the city. This important initiative will reduce traffic congestion, improve commuter safety and get people home on time – and take ore trucks off Lasalle. My government is proud to invest in Sudbury and the people who call it home.”

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The Wetum Road: How much is connecting James Bay to the provincial highway worth? – by John Michael McGrath (TVO.org – April 05, 2016)

 

http://tvo.org/

Stories from the Wetum Road, click here: http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/the-next-ontario/tvo-on-the-road-the-wetum-road

MOOSONEE, Ont. — The argument for a permanent year-round road to James Bay is pretty simple for the people who live there.

“Bottom line, what we’re trying to do here is lower the cost of living,” says Ryan Small, director of technical services for the Mushkegowuk Council, a coalition of seven First Nations in Ontario’s northeast. “The time we get to use the winter roads is getting shorter and shorter. Building access for our communities is important.”

Building a year-round road from the closest point on the provincial highway system north to James Bay will be daunting.

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Ring on federal radar: MP – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – March 27, 2016)

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Historic investments in infrastructure and education for First Nations will help advance the Ring of Fire, says Sudbury Liberal MP Paul Lefebvre.

In Tuesday’s federal budget, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau allocated $8.4 billion to be spent on First Nations in the next five years, with much of it to be invested after the Grits’ first term.

There was no specific mention of other infrastructure investments in the rich chromite deposits in the James Bay Lowlands in the budget. Lefebvre said no projects were identified anywhere in Canada, but billions will be invested in such projects.

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Federal budget 2016: northeastern Ontario leaders wait on infrastructure funding (CBC News Sudbury – March 22, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

The latest Wynne government budget assumes Ontario will get an extra cash for transit and highway projects

Northern MPs are waiting to see how much funding will be available for infrastructure when the federal government tables its first budget today.

They’re also hoping to get money for the Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich development project on the James Bay Lowlands.

The Liberals have committed to doubling their investment in infrastructure, and Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus tells CBC News it’s the right thing to do.

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Warming climate helps north Canada miners ship supplies, melts locals’ ice roads (Reuters India – March 9, 2016)

http://in.reuters.com/

TORONTO, March 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Global warming is making it easier for resource companies to ship supplies through Arctic waterways in northern Canada, but harder for remote communities to truck in food on winter ice roads, mining industry officials and indigenous leaders said.

Shifting transportation patterns in the far north due to the changing climate are expected to reduce the cost of mining and other projects in once frozen coastal areas, while raising the price of goods for residents and businesses operating inland.

Ice roads, built on frozen waterways, have until recently provided crucial winter transportation links to northern communities which have no regular road access.

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‘Mother Nature’ making it tough for James Bay winter roads (CBC News Sudbury – February 29, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

About $2 million spent on winter roads that run between Attawapiskat and Smooth Rock Falls

This time of year it’s a lot easier to get around Ontario’s far north, thanks to winter roads — but those who build these transportation routes out of ice and snow say it’s getting harder as winters get warmer.

This year, a lack of snow and wonky weather in general, saw both the 170 km Wetum Road that runs south from Moose Factory and the ice road that runs along the James Bay Coast from Moosonee to Attawapiskat, delay opening until late January.

Peter Wesley, who manages the Wetum Road for Moose Cree First Nation, told CBC News there was so much pressure from the public that crews worked around the clock to get it ready.

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Nunavut adds huge Grays Bay road-port scheme to its shopping list – by Jim Bell (Nunatsiaq News – February 29, 2016)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Nunavut Resource Corp., GN, would work together on proposed Kitikmeot transport system

As federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget speech looms March 22, the Government of Nunavut has added another piece of transportation infrastructure to its shopping list: the Grays Bay Road and Port Project.

That project would revive the moribund Izok corridor zinc-lead mining project touted by Chinese-owned MMG Resources Inc. and form the first phase of a long-dreamed-about all-weather road between Yellowknife and the Arctic Coast.

Without a port and road, MMG’s two proposed mines, at High Lake and Izok Lake, are not viable — and the project has been mothballed since April 2013.

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Ontario court ruling opens up potential road access to ‘Ring of Fire’ mineral belt – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – February 25, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

TORONTO — The planned development of Northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral belt got a potential boost on Wednesday when an appeals court ruled that a small junior mining firm should not have exclusive access to a transportation corridor.

The decision opens the door to construction of a north-south road to the Ring, which is thought to contain about $60 billion of chromite and other minerals. The Ontario government supports a road, in part because it would link up with remote First Nations communities.

In 2009, a Toronto-based company called KWG Resources Inc. staked more than 200 mining claims going from the Ring of Fire all the way down to the CN rail line in Exton, Ont. Effectively, this gave KWG control over a crucial 340-kilometre access route to the mineral belt.

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Is the road to the Ring of Fire open to all? – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – February 25, 2016)

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

KWG Resources no longer has exclusive rights on a strategic transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire.

On Feb. 25, an Ontario appeals court upheld a divisional court ruling from last year that allows other mining companies to apply for an easement to use the 340-kilometre long route into the remote exploration camp in the province’s Far North.

According to a news release issued by Noront Resources: “The decision allows a proponent to apply for an easement along the corridor without requiring the consent of the claim holder (KWG).”

Noront inherited the court case when it acquired the chromite deposits belonging to Cliffs Natural Resources last spring.

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Can ‘superblimp’ unlock hidden riches of Africa? (CNN.com – February 24, 2016)

http://www.cnn.com/

Mining consultant Stan Sudol, publisher of respected industry website republicofmining.com,
agrees the ship could be a game changer, that will allow commodities to be fast-tracked to 
market “They can be used to set up initial mine site development for less cost in a faster time-
frame as no local airstrip is necessary to start cargo delivery,” says Sudol.

(CNN)Best known for floating aimlessly above sports stadiums, and for their slightly comic, bloated shape, blimps are an unlikely subject for a 21st century revival.

But after 20 years of development, Lockheed Martin and Hybrid Enterprises are poised to unleash a revolutionary new design that could unlock resources worth billions of dollars across the African continent.

The Hybrid Airship is a helium-powered craft that can cover thousands of kilometers in a single journey, with a top speed of 60 knots. The craft can take off and land without a runway, and the cavernous interior can carry loads of 20 tons.

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Africa’s costly missing rail links – by Gavin du Venage (The National – February 20, 2016)

http://www.thenational.ae/

CAPE TOWN // Transporters moving goods across Africa put up with a lot: bandits armed with AK-47s, elephants using a fender to ease an itch and thieves who run alongside slow moving vehicles to siphon diesel out of the tank into Coca Cola bottles.

Then there are border posts, police checkpoints and various other forms of bureaucracy that can hold up lorries for days. Often, bribes and spurious fines also need to be paid before cargo can move.

It is hardly surprising that according to the African Development Bank it costs twice as much to transport goods across many countries on the continent than it does anywhere else in the developing world.

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Mild winter blocks access to ice roads in remote Ontario reserves – by Julien Gignac (Globe and Mail – February 6, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Many remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario are suffering the effects of one of the mildest winters on record: Roughly 60 per cent of ice roads connecting dozens of reserves to southern municipalities have yet to open. Most of those that have opened can only sustain light traffic – snowmobiles or small, half-ton trucks.

Frigid temperatures are welcomed in the region, as ice roads function as lifelines to otherwise landlocked First Nations, expediting the transportation of such supplies as diesel fuel, building materials and food. Sometimes community members themselves make the trip to Thunder Bay to stock up on essentials. Without winter roads, northern communities have been forced to ship supplies by air, a costly endeavour.

“Nothing’s moving,” said Darrell Morgan, president of Morgan Fuels, which is a top distributor of fuel in the Northern Ontario region. “The lack of ice is a tough go. We supply some communities with fuel through air freight, but it’s extremely expensive.”

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