Citing a list of holdups with its proposed Ring of Fire chromite project, Cliffs Natural Resources announced on June 12 it has suspended its environmental assessment (EA) for the $3.3 billion mine project.
Bill Boor, Cliffs senior vice president, told Wawatay News that the uncertainty over the federal EA process – given Matawa First Nations’ ongoing legal case calling for a Joint Review Panel assessment – played a significant role in Cliffs decision to halt the project.
“Cliffs wants to work with First Nations on how we’ll cooperatively make sure we have an assessment that works for all of us, so we can assess this project in the best possible way,” Boor said. “We haven’t reached an agreement on that, and one of the issues is the judicial review.”
Boor emphasized that the uncertainty over the federal EA process was only one reason Cliffs decided to temporarily suspend work on the project. He noted that Ontario has still not approved Cliffs’ terms of reference for the provincial EA, and that a number of agreements with the provincial government remain unfinished.
Cliffs’ has also not been granted access to land it requires for an all-weather road to the mine site, another issue that has stalled the project. A land dispute between Cliffs and KWG Resources is currently awaiting ruling from Ontario’s mining commissioner.