Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

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

Thunder Bay, ON, February 4th, 2011– The Lake Nipigon First Nations and Matawa First Nations Chiefs are forming a united front when it comes to mining and infrastructure issues. The Chiefs met yesterday to initiate discussions on entering into a memorandum of understanding to work cooperatively together on common issues directly related to mineral development.

The Chiefs agreed to a framework on the issues the memorandum will undertake. Three key issues including the location of the proposed chromite processing plant, the transmission line from Nipigon to Little Jackfish and exploring economic and infrastructure opportunities, are going to form the initial content of the memorandum.

Chief Sonny Gagnon states; “The chromite will be taken from the traditional territories of the First Nations people; it only makes sense that we the First Nations people must have direct benefit from the construction and operation of the chromite processing facility. Matawa First Nations strongly stands behind the request that the processing facility be located in the Greenstone area”.

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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. This article is from the May, 2010 issue.

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

“The cost to produce electricity in Northern Ontario is really quite cheap.
Northern Ontarians are now paying for the very expensive nuclear plants in
Southern Ontario that they need. And our electricity costs should be based
on what it costs to generate electricity in Northern Ontario.”
(Moe Lavigne, KWG VP Exploration and Development)

Power and First Nation cooperation key to developing Ring of Fire mine.

An abundant supply of cheap power will decide whether northwestern Ontario lands any of the processing of chromite ore when a proposed Mc-Faulds Lake mine opens in 2016.

At an investors’ forum in Thunder Bay in early April, Moe Lavigne, KWG’s vice-president of exploration and development, laid out his company’s timelines and challenges on how the Toronto miner plans to develop its Big Daddy deposit in the James Bay Lowlands.

Behind the backing of Cliffs Natural Resources, a Cleveland, Ohio-based iron ore and coal conglomerate, KWG has set up a subsidiary company, Canada Chrome, to bring to life the massive and ambitious mine and railroad project, estimated at $2 billion.

Many one-industry communities along Lake Superior’s north shore are salivating at the opportunity to replace hundreds of lost forestry mill jobs with mineral processing employment opportunities. The manufacturing capacity to process McFaulds Lake chromite will require a concentrator and an electric arc furnace which produces fer-rochrome, a key ingredient in making stainless steel. The processing must be located close to a source of affordable power and rail connections.

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

Thunder Bay, ON, January 13th, 2011 – With daily news releases being issued by Ontario, the mining industry and regional municipalities about developments in the Ring of Fire, the local Matawa First Nations seriously question why they have not been consulted about decisions that directly impact their people, communities and way of life.

The nine Matawa First Nations Chiefs, including Marten Falls, Webequie and Neskantaga First Nations, recently held an emergency meeting to discuss the lack of government and industry consultation in the planning and development processes taking place in the Ring of Fire. “To our knowledge, there is not one single advanced exploration or mining agreement in place between any of our First Nations and any mining company that is exploring in the Ring of Fire area.“ says Chief Roy Moonias.

Continues Chief Sonny Gagnon of Aroland First Nation; “While regional municipalities from Thunder Bay to Sudbury compete for site selection for the smelter facility and construction route of a transportation corridor into our traditional territory, our First Nations who actually live in the Ring of Fire, have not yet been invited to the table to even initiate discussions over community impacts.”

Currently Aroland First Nation is lobbying to get the smelter near the First Nation community, signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Greenstone. Chief Gagnon says; “It only makes sense to build a smelter near our community and to benefit the immediate region from where the minerals are being taken out of. It is viable to generate electricity to run this mining facility in the area, but we need the Government’s support to make it a reality.”

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Wawatay News is Northern Ontario’s First Nation Voice with offices in Sioux Lookout, Timmins and Thunder Bay. This article was posted on their website on January 26, 2011. James Thom is the Editor – jamest@wawatay.on.ca

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

Marten Falls First Nation is planning another blockade in the Ring of Fire over concerns of a work camp set up near the community.

Chief Eli Moonias said protestors from his community will likely have the blockade set up within a week. The Ring of Fire is a chromite deposit in the James Bay lowlands. “This is our territory,” Moonias said. “If you want to set up a camp there you have to come and see us.”

Moonias said his community is concerned about a 40-man camp built on muskeg along Koper Lake and being used by mining companies KWG Resources Inc. and Fancamp Exploration Ltd.

Webequie Logistics, a company providing on the ground support for mining exploration companies working in the Ring of Fire area, built the camp. The company isn’t owned by Webequie First Nation, but is based out of Thunder Bay and owned by Clayton Downton and Sam Lapagge.

“Last fall they built a new camp by the lake … right on top of the water,” he said. The location of the camp is more suited for a temporary two- or three-man set up, Moonias said, adding the location is near a caribou herd.

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

MONTREAL, Canada, Jan. 18, 2011 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) —
Symbol on TSX Venture Exchange: KWG
Shares issued and outstanding: 623,458,941

KWG Resources Inc. (KWG) has extended invitations to the Chiefs of five First Nations in the Ring of Fire area to join the Board of Directors of its subsidiary Canada Chrome Corporation (“CCC”).

“Late last year we advised Chiefs Elijah Moonias, Cornelius Wabasse, Sonny Gagnon, Roy Moonias and Lewis Nate that there appeared to be technical and economic merit to proceeding with a feasibility study of the railroad for which we have staked a right-of-way and sampled soil profiles,” said KWG President Frank Smeenk. “Should subsequent development ensue which physically affects their traditional lands, there must first be prior consultation and accommodation, as is well understood by all constituencies. The entire Matawa family of First Nations is enthusiastic to see these developments progress. To facilitate and expedite the process, we felt that the extensive consultation necessary could be most effectively undertaken by having the leading members of the five most directly impacted communities participate in the corporate planning from the outset. In this way those who are most affected by these hoped-for developments can become the proponents of them.”

Golder Associates were retained by CCC to conduct testing of the soil profiles from samples taken last winter at 1000-foot intervals along the length of the potential right-of-way.

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This posting is an excerpt from “Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” , a Conference Board of Canada publication written by three nationally renowned Canadian scholars: Thomas Berger , Steven A. Kennett and Hayden King.

“Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” Highlights:

Most of Canada’s natural resources—forests, metals and minerals, hydroelectric sites, oil and natural gas, and untapped resources that can be further developed—are in the North, and a warming climate is making them more accessible. Businesses, Aboriginal communities, and federal, provincial, and territorial governments will all want their share of the benefits of Northern economic development.

Canada’s North: What’s the Plan? draws on the different viewpoints of three nationally renowned scholars to explore the effectiveness of land use planning in Canada’s North from three very distinct perspectives. Their essays are required reading for those seeking to understand this important issue and draw their own conclusions.

Ontario represents the worst type of planning with Indigenous peoples—a seemingly complete disregard for the perspectives and opinions of the people who will be most directly affected by the land use plans. – The Conference Board of Canada Publication –  “Canada’s North: What’s the Plan?” (November, 2010)

Exclusionary Planning in Ontario

While Nunavut and Yukon have pursued land use plans through the relatively recent NLCA and UFA, treaties in Northern Ontario are over 100 years old and make no mention of planning commissions. There are also no stipulations for the co-management of surrendered lands in the North, and there is no consensus on roles and responsibilities. In fact, there is little consensus about who actually has authority in Ontario’s North. The Cree and Ojibwe feel that they agreed to share their territories in treaties 3, 5, and 9. Ontario feels that there was explicit surrender and, thus, the Crown has jurisdiction.

This is the unsteady footing from which planning proceeds in the province. Not evolving from the claims-based co-management common in the territories, Ontario’s experience might be described more as crisis-based, as it is a response to numerous high-profile confrontations. However, despite the differences between Nunavut’s and Ontario’s land use planning regimes, there are similarities—primarily, the exclusion of Indigenous peoples from the planning process. In Ontario’s case, the problem does not lie in the execution of plans, but in the drafting.

Ontario has an inauspicious history with First Nations communities in the province. That history has even occasionally resulted in violent conflict with the Haudenosaunee and Algonquin peoples, often over lands and resources. Of course, the province has witnessed the police shooting death of Dudley George at Ipperwash and the ongoing standoff in Caledonia, but most pertinent have been a number of recent conflicts in the North.

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