Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery – Page 157

Ring of Fire buring issue for Cliffs – Peter Koven (National Post-March 10, 2011)

March 16, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post on March 10, 2011. pkoven@nationalpost.com

Bill Boor knows he is in a tricky situation with the Ring of Fire, and that whatever decision he announces in the coming months will upset a lot of people.

“It’s a byproduct of what I think has been a pretty transparent approach that we’ve taken here,” the president of ferroalloys at Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. said in an interview at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference.

“You can be very transparent and try to work in good faith to come to the right answer, or you can keep your cards close to your chest, don’t get people excited and just slam an answer down, which I think is less likely to be optimal.”

Cliffs is leading development of the Ring of Fire, an ultra-rich source of chromite and other metals located in a very remote corner of the James Bay Lowlands in Northern Ontario. The provincial government views it as crucial for economic development in the North, where it is expected to become the next major Canadian mining camp.

The [Ontario] Ring of Fire – by Peter Gorrie (ONnature Magazine: Fall 2010)

March 15, 2011March 15, 2011

Ontario Nature is a charitable organization representing more than 30,000 members and supporters and 140 member groups across Ontario. Their goal is to protect wild species and wild spaces through conservation, education and public engagement. This article is from their magazine On Nature. A more thorough explanation of Ontario Nature’s mission and goals is listed at the end of this posting.

Peter Gorrie is a Toronto-based freelance writer specializing in environmental and energy issues, and the environment columnist for The Toronto Star.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

The Ring of Fire – by Peter Gorrie

Buried treasure – copper, nickel, diamonds, chromite – lies beneath northern Ontario’s vast boreal landscape, prompting a frenzy of unchecked mining activity despite the provincial government’s two-year-old promise to safeguard half the boreal region and promote sustainable development in the other half. Will the Ring of Fire become Ontario’s tar sands?

Standing beside the metal-clad head frame of a former gold mine in the middle of the broad northern Ontario landscape near Aroland First Nation, Andrew Megan Sr. tells me a story that, he says, took place some 70 years earlier.

His father and uncle, working their trapline, found a rock flecked with gold. The men showed the rock to a non-native prospector and, when asked, showed him where they had come upon it. In return, he gave each a pouch of tobacco.

Months passed – how many is unclear – but one day as Megan, his father, uncle and relatives sat in their bush camp, they heard a mechanical roar. They scattered as a bulldozer crashed through the trees and brush. The next year, work began on a mine that continued, off and on, until 1984. Prospectors had been exploring and staking the area for more than a decade, but the rock found by Megan’s father and uncle pinpointed a potentially rich vein of gold that spurred development of the site. Over the next four decades, a series of companies, including Osulake Mines and Consolidated Louanna, attempted to determine the extent and value of the ore body and start operations, but the mine didn’t produce any gold for sale until near the end of its life.

Megan, now 72 and a respected elder, recounts the story to make a point he considers crucial.

Commentary on Mining Watch: Ring of Fire Report – by Stan Sudol

September 5, 2016March 14, 2011

Map Courtsey KWG

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively about the mining industry. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“In the next 25 years, demand for metals could meet or exceed what we have used
since the beginning of the industrial revolution. By way of illustration, China needs to
build three cities larger than Sydney or Toronto every year until 2030 to accommodate
rural to urban growth. This equates to the largest migration of population from rural to
urban living in the history of mankind.” (John McGagh, Rio Tinto – Head of Innovation)

Mining Watch Reputation

Mining Watch was established in 1999 in response to the actions of Canadian exploration companies operating in Latin America and other jurisdictions in the developing world.

As stated on their website, “MiningWatch Canada … addresses the urgent need for a co-ordinated public interest response to the threats to public health, water and air quality, fish and wildlife habitat and community interests posed by irresponsible mineral policies and practices in Canada and around the world.”

In contrast to many in the mining sector I find a few of Mining Watch’s criticism’s legitimate and they have worked cooperatively with the industry in Ontario. In 2008, Mining Watch in conjunction with the Ontario Mining Association supported the amendment of the Ontario Mining Act that enabled companies to voluntarly rehabilitation mine sites even thought they had no legal requirments to do so.

Recently, Mining Watch has issued a report titled, “Economic analysis of the Ring of Fire chromite mining play”. It was written by former Sudbury resident and well-known social activist Joan Kuyek. While the report covers a wide range of topics, I would like to focus on some important issues that have been downplayed or omitted, primarily the current state of mining, geo-politics and a history of enormous wealth creation from the mineral sector due to government infrastructure support.

Money, brains and buried treasure at PDAC 2011- by Norm Tollinsky

September 13, 2018March 10, 2011

Norm Tollinsky is editor of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. This article is from the March, 2011 issue.

It’s no accident that 22,000 members of the global mining community take over Front Street in Toronto every year about this time. Ontario, the epicenter of the global mineral exploration business, is where the deals get done. It’s where money is raised and expertise is sought for discovering and mining the resources that are more in demand than ever as prosperity in the developing countries puts cash in the pockets of hundreds of millions of new consumers.

Downtown Toronto is where it all happens, but Ontario’s stature as an international centre of mining expertise begins with the province’s inexhaustible natural endowment of gold, diamonds, copper, nickel, zinc, platinum group metals and now, chromite. After a brief dip in mineral exploration caused by the global financial meltdown in 2008, Ontario is once again firing on all cylinders.

As reported in our cover story this issue, the province reported record-breaking mineral exploration expenditures of $825 million for 2010 and there is every indication that 2011 will be just as busy. All across Northern Ontario, from Detour Gold’s 14.9 million ounce Detour Lake project in the northeast to Osisko’s 6.7 million ounce Hammond Reef project in northwestern Ontario, we are seeing former producing mines returning to production, new resources being discovered, shafts being sunk or deepened and head frames rising from the earth.

Liberals set to go mining for votes in Ontario’s north – by Christina Blizzard (Toronto Sun)

March 7, 2011

Christina Blizzard is the Queen’s Park columnist for the Toronto Sun, the city’s daily tabloid newspaper.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

christina.blizzard@sunmedia.ca

The big question to ask Northern Development Minister Mike Gravelle when he unveils his long-awaited Northern Development Growth Plan Friday is this: Is this really about jobs, development and good health and education services for the North?

Or is this a last-ditch pitch by the Liberals to shore up their fortunes in a part of the province that has felt shunned and ignored for the past seven years?

The Conference Board of Canada released damning figures Thursday that reveal northern Ontario had the second slowest growth in the country — after northern Quebec.

Hard hit by the downturn in forestry and associated manufacturing, from 1999-2008, northern Ontario clocked only a 3% growth rate. Quebec’s was lowest overall at 2.2% — but neighbouring northern Manitoba’s growth rate was 12.2% and southern Ontario came in at 8.5%.

Ring of Fire NAN communitiues map out their mining future – Ian Ross

March 7, 2011

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca and this article is from the March, 2011 issue.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

With massive mine, transportation and processing developments coming to Ontario’s Far North within the next few years, First Nation leaders were gathering in February to map out a strategic direction built on consultation with mining companies. Cliffs Natural Resources has aggressive timelines to start construction for its chromite mine, processing and transportation project in the McFaulds Lake area of the James Bay region by early 2013, with mine production by 2015.

Les Louttit, deputy grand chief of the Thunder Bay-based Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), said “the timing is right” for First Nations to determine how best to gain the maximum benefits from resource revenues, future jobs and spinoff business opportunities from the mine development.

The political advocacy organization, representing 49 communities within northwestern Ontario and the James Bay Lowlands, gathered its membership in Thunder Bay in late February for an inaugural economic summit. They wanted to collectively identify what challenges are ahead, and what they want out of a future resource-based economy.

Ontario Ring of Fire Coordinator Christine Kaszycki builds trust and shepherds Northern development – by Ian Ross

March 7, 2011March 7, 2011

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Christine Kaszycki has to maintain a delicate balancing act. Appointed as the province’s Ring of Fire Coordinator last fall, she’s has the wide-ranging task of keeping Aboriginal people, Northerners and the mining companies all on the same page to advance the biggest mineral find in Ontario since the turn of the last century.

Kaszycki, a former assistant deputy minister of the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry (MNDMF), already has well-established relationships with mining companies and many Aboriginal leaders in the Far North.

Though living in Sudbury, she regularly commutes to Thunder Bay, where she is staffing up a secretariat’s office there, and travels to the Northern communities for constant consultation with Aboriginal leaders.

Kaszycki views the job as evolving over time. For now, she’s concentrating on building capacity to prepare people in the Far North, many living in Third World-like poverty conditions, to take advantage of all the positive spinoffs from the looming mining projects in the James Bay Lowlands.

NEWS RELEASE: Marten Falls First Nation Statement on Ring of Fire Blockade

March 4, 2011

MARTEN FALLS FIRST NATION – On January 25th, 2011, we announced that a blockade will commence and asked the companies to comply. To our knowledger, only the Billiken Camp complied; Noront made a statement to disregard the action; KWG made a statement that they obtained permission from Webequie First Nation (wrong First Nation to consult) and therefore, proceeded to disregard the order. This disregarded action has posed a serious threat to dialogue including the LUP (land-use plan with Ontario) process. In order to avoid a complete breakdown of communication and the imposition of a trespass notice to our territories, the following items need to be addresses by both government and the third party:

1. Winter Road

– No construction

– No plans

– No permit to cross Attawapiskat River Parkway

– Only Airlines are busy

2011 ACTION PLAN FOR ONTARIO MINING: TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A CRITICAL WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY – Ontario Mining Association (OMA) Policy Paper

March 3, 2011

This policy document was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

2011 Ontario Mining Association (OMA) Policy Paper

“China needs to build three cities larger than Sydney (or Toronto)
every year until 2030 to accommodate rural to urban migration.”
(Rio Tinto Presentation)

Ontario has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources, including untold mineral potential. For more than a century, word-class mineral discoveries in this province have brought development and prosperity, along with scientific and technological advances, enabling Ontario’s economy to evolve through innovation. From the earliest times, mining spurred on infrastructure development, enabled more equitable regional development and sustained a variety of support industries. These industries include obvious ones like manufacturing, but also perhaps some unexpected ones like education and financial services.

Today, mining continues to be an economic pillar of Ontario. It is well positioned to grow its contribution to our economy. Though the number fluctuates with various commodity price changes, mining in Ontario had revenues of $6.3 billion in 2009 (down by about 30% due to the global economic downturn). The industry provides a major boost to our financial sector, with the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) currently being the leading global mining exchange, listing 57% of the world’s public mining companies and raising more mining equity capital than any other exchange.

Historically, Ontario has taken advantage of spikes that occurred as a result of US industrialization, the post-Second World War rebuilding of Europe and the industrialization of Japan. We find ourselves in another of these defining moments of immense opportunity. Large nations such as China, India and Brazil are experiencing mass urbanization and rapid development. These nations are determined to narrow the gap between Western and developing nation lifestyles. To do that mineral products are essential.

Matawa First Nations appoints Ring of Fire Coordinator – by Ian Ross

March 3, 2011

Building from the ground up

Raymond Ferris hit the ground running in his new job. He had barely settled into his chair as the new Matawa First Nations Ring of Fire Coordinator in late January when Marten Falls First Nation threatened to block all mineral exploration in the Ring of Fire until the mining companies signed memorandums of understanding and exploration agreements.

Within days, Cleveland-based mining giant Cliffs Natural Resources released the project description of its Black Thor chromite deposit in the James Bay Lowlands and its ambitious plans to start production by 2015.

But it’s nothing new for the 54-year-old Ferris, who is well-versed in Aboriginal and treaty rights as a former deputy grand chief for Nishnawbe Aski Nation, where he handled the mining and natural resources file.

As a former chief of Constance Lake First Nation, Ferris participated in a few blockades in his home community against mining and forestry companies. The concessations that were gained helped secure Aboriginal roadbuilding jobs and lead to the creation of a band-owned logging company.

Will Cliffs force Ontario to deliver a Northern industry power rate? – by Ian Ross

March 2, 2011

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Power Play

Cliffs Natural Resources is forcing the McGuinty government’s hand on the pricey issue of power in Ontario.

The Cleveland-based iron ore and coal miner has put the ball squarely in the provincial government’s court by agreeing to place a ferrochrome refinery in Ontario only if Queen’s Park comes to terms on an acceptable power rate.

A much-anticipated project description of Cliffs’ Chromite project in the James Bay Ring of Fire was released Feb. 4 naming Sudbury as the front-runner to host the ore processing.

Cliffs’ president of ferroalloy Bill Boor said, although the Sudbury suburb of Capreol is the most “technically feasible” site for the ferrochrome processing, there is no place in Ontario that makes economic sense with the price of power at its current provincial rates.

“The availability of a large, reliable and cost-competitive supply of electricity is a key consideration in locating the appropriate site of the ferrochrome production facility,” said Boor in a conference call with reporters.

[Ring of Fire] Chromite discovery sparks excitement – by Norm Tollinsky (June, 2009)

March 1, 2011

Norm Tollinsky is editor of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. This article is from the June, 2009 issue.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“This greenstone belt, this Ring of Fire crescent, is about the same land area of the Abitibi
Greenstone Belt, which includes Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Noranda and Val d’Or. It comprises a substantial part of the mining wealth of Canada, and we have a sister to it.”
(Frank Smeenk, President, KWG Resources – June, 2009)

A massive chromite deposit in the James Bay Lowlands will extend the development frontier of Ontario from Timmins to the Attawapiskat River and result in billions of dollars of spending on new mines, processing facilities and infrastructure, according to senior executives of several junior mining companies.

The deposit, touted as one of the largest discoveries of chromite in the world and the only one in North America, has already attracted the attention of one major mining company and others may follow.

Cliffs Natural Resources, the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, a major supplier of direct-shipping lump and fines iron ore out of Australia and a significant producer of metallurgical coal, has invested U.S. $3.5 million in a private placement for 19.9 per cent of KWG Resources Inc., one of five junior mining companies with property along the 12 to 14-kilometre strike length of the deposit.

Hydro rates killing jobs – by Wayne Snider, The Daily Press (February 28, 2011)

March 1, 2011

Wayne Snider is the city editor for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

“An independent Northern Ontario electricity authority would allow us to create
jobs in Northern Ontario, contribute to the economy of the North and at the end
of the day, it would be good for all of Ontario.” (Former NDP leader Howard Hampton)

OPINION: Northern municipal leaders seek provincial solution to industrial sized problem

Northern Ontario municipal representatives will deliver their wish list to the leaders of the three mainstream political parties this week during the Ontario Good Roads Convention.

It would be shocking if hydro rates were not on that list, given the fact that rising costs of the utility have played a major role in gutting industry across the North.

Hydro costs were one of the key contributors leading Xstrata Copper to close its smelting operations at the Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site. Instead, ore concentrate is now shipped to Quebec, where electricity is much cheaper. (With the move, the province also lost one of its largest customers in terms of power sales.)

Saw and paper mills have also been hit hard by soaring hydro costs. In Iroquois Falls, there is an atmosphere of dread created by the pending sale of AbitibiBowater’s hydro electric dams. The fear being that once the cheap source of power dries up, the company will walk away from the community.

One of the major players in the Ring of Fire project, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., has publicly stated that hydro costs in Ontario are too prohibitive to make processing of the ore in-province attractive.

Cliffs would save millions locating [Ring of Fire] chromite plant in Manitoba or Quebec: Hampton – Sudbury Star Staff

February 28, 2011February 28, 2011

The Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. This column was published on February 23, 2011.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Cliffs Resources would save tens of millions in energy costs each year by opening its proposed chromite smelter in either Manitoba or Quebec, a Northern Ontario NDP MPP told the Ontario legislature Tuesday.

Howard Hampton, NDP MPP Kenora-Rainy River and former NDP leader, said that according to the Manitoba Hydro website, a company like Cliffs Resources would pay a monthly hydro bill of about $5.3 million a month (or $63 million a year) if it located the smelter in Ontario.

The same refinery located in Manitoba would pay a hydro bill of $ $2.1 million a month (or $26 million a year). The Quebec figures are $2.8 million a month, or $33.5 million a year, Hampton said.

“The real travesty in all of this is the fact that in Northern Ontario, we generate some of the cleanest and greenest electricity (mostly from falling water) at some of the lowest costs on the planet, yet we are not allowed to use that electricity at an affordable price to create jobs in Northern Ontario because of the McGuinty Liberals ‘made in Toronto for Toronto’ electricity policy,” Hampton said in a release.

Understanding Aboriginal Treaties Key for Ring of Fire Projects – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 25, 2011)

March 15, 2011February 28, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on August 6, 2009.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

NISHNAWBE Aski Nation (NAN) is to be commended for initiating a forum to explain the treaties that govern its people in relation to the rest of Northwestern Ontario. Generalized references to treaty rights have marked every disagreement over land and resources, but outside of band offices, a few academics and relevant government departments, most people don’t understand what was agreed to up to a century ago and more.

The passage of so much time has resulted in many interpretations about what treaties say and what was meant by those who signed them. In seeking to create “an understanding of the treaty relationship between First Nations and the greater society of Canada,” NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy is conducting an important exercise.

Beardy offers the view that Treaties 5 and 9, governing NAN territory, are based on “peaceful co-existence.” Even a brief parsing of the federal government’s description of these treaties shows they were hard to come by. That being said, they are the law of the land for Indians and understanding them is more important than ever.