Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery – Page 158

Ring of Fire’s Noront Resources Brings Santa and Hockey Stars to First Nation Community of Webequie

November 3, 2015December 22, 2010

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

For video footage of the Noront Reources Christmas trip to Webequie: http://www.mikawaa.com/christmascard2010/

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

Ontario Mining Association member Noront Resources employed a little magic to fly in Santa bearing gifts and two former National Hockey League stars to Webequie last week. Webequie, which has no year round road connections and a population of 800, is located 540 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

“This is the second year for the Noront Christmas Cheer Event in which every child in the community under the age of 12 receives a gift,” said Leanne Hall, Vice President Human Resources and “special assistant” to Noront’s Santa. “We started in 2009 giving gifts to children instead of sending cards to help make the children feel special and this year we provided 200 gifts in Webequie.”

It is estimated that $155 million have been invested in mineral exploration in
the Ring of Fire area. In Canada, mining is the largest private sector employer
of Aboriginals, who comprise 7.5% of the mining workforce — up from 3.6% in 2006.
– Ontario Mining Association – December 22, 2010

Former NHL players Todd Harvey and Todd Hlushko came with Santa on the flight from Thunder Bay. They spoke with students and stressed the “stay in school and believe in yourself” message, signed autographs and showed evidence of their sporting success. Mr. Harvey, who was born in Hamilton, won gold medals in 1994 and 1995 at the World Junior Hockey championships and Mr. Hlushko, who was born in Guelph, won the Olympic silver medal in hockey in 1994. As well as playing for different NHL teams, Mr. Hlushko played for a number of years for teams in Germany.

Todd Hlushko and Todd Harvey with Webequie child - Photo by Engage Learning

“I had never visited a community like Webequie before,” said Mr. Harvey. “It was an outdoor rink and we had to shovel off the snow before skating. It was old school, like pond hockey, and through the day we probably had a couple of hundred kids on the ice. We ran clinics concentrating on skating, stick handling and shooting and also had a community skate.”

Ontario Government News Release: Investment, Chromite Top Agenda For Premier In Hong Kong – November 3, 2010

January 1, 2011December 12, 2010

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

McGuinty Meets with Chairman Li Ka-shing and CEO Eric Huang

Leaders from Hong Kong’s business community met Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and ministers Sandra Pupatello and Michael Chan to discuss investment opportunities in Ontario.

Premier McGuinty spoke at a reception hosted by the Canada-Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce. Guests included leaders in mining and financial services. McGuinty credited Ontario’s strong financial services sector for helping it weather the global recession better than most other economies. He also talked about the government’s plans to develop the Ring of Fire, an area in Northern Ontario that contains one of the world’s largest chromite deposits.

Guests also included representatives from Hong Kong universities who came to learn about Ontario’s plans to boost international enrolment in postsecondary institutions by 50 per cent over the next five years.

Earlier, Premier McGuinty met with Li Ka-shing, Chairman of Cheung Kong Limited and Hutchison Whampoa. The Premier and Mr. Li discussed Ontario as a growing North American location for new investment and trade. McGuinty also met with Eric Huang, CEO of CITIC Merchant Bank.

Premier McGuinty also honoured Canadian soldiers at Sai Wan War Cemetery, resting place for soldiers who died in the defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War. McGuinty laid a wreath to honour the over 550 Canadian soldiers who died, 22 of whom were from Ontario.

[Ontario Mining] Losing Ground – Karen Mazurkewich (Originally published in Financial Post Magazine, April 2010 issue)

September 16, 2019December 12, 2010

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. article was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine’s April, 2010 issue.

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

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who stated in a February news conference that “we are not going to succeed in Ontario by pulling stuff out of the ground,” has changed his tune. “There is a tremendous amount of excitement over the economic potential of the Ring of Fire,” says Michael Gravelle, Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry.

In Bygone Days, Good Bush Gear And Decent Maps Were A Mining Firm’s Greatest Assets. Today, Regulation And Bureaucracy Rule The Industry. Is Canada Paying The Price?

Don McKinnon, a grizzled prospector from Timmins, Ont., sports a whopping gold nugget on his finger — proof of his prodigious finds. The 80-year-old owns a stake in the nearby Hemlo gold mine and is still very much a player in the Canadian mining industry. He remembers when the staking was hard and the regulations were easy. To get a leg up on the competition, the hoary miner wasn’t above “dirty tricks” like buying up all the mine ministry maps in town. McKinnon still displays the 40 pairs of snowshoes he bought in the winter of ’79 to thwart competing prospectors during the Hemlo staking rush, and tells tales of being stalked by polar bears in the Far North.

But ask him his thoughts on the industry today, and he simply growls: “it’s tougher.” These days, McKinnon leaves the finer points of the mining business to his 27-year-old son, Gordon, president of Canadian Orebodies Inc., which has large claims in the James Bay Lowlands. The younger McKinnon doesn’t spend nights in the bush with a pick-axe. To be a player, junior miners need ample knowledge of stock market and the ability to negotiate impact benefit agreements with First Nations. In Gordon’s case, the list also includes overseeing an survey on caribou migratory patterns — a project he funded as part of an exploration deal in northern Ontario.

While his father still relies on his massive collection of topographical maps, Gordon eagerly awaits Ontario’s new regulations that permit online mapping. It’s staking made simple, but at a price: more bureaucracy. He processes more paper in a week than his father did in a year. “Before, the government saw a new mine as a new revenue stream; now they put us through hoops,” says the younger McKinnon.

Mining was the early economic engine of this nation, and swaths of Bay Street’s wealth can be traced back to prior generations of wheeler-dealers.

Double-talk Dalton McGuinty [About Ontario Mining]- by Toronto Sun Columnist Christina Blizzard (Originally Published March 09, 2010)

January 1, 2011December 12, 2010

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

“In a highly competitive, knowledge-based global economy, we are not going succeed in
Ontario by pulling stuff out of the ground.” – Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Feb/11/2010

Premier Dalton McGuinty just pulled off the fastest head spin since Linda Blair grossed us all out in The Exorcist.

One minute the premier thought mining was a dying industry. The next, it’s alive and saving the economy.

In a news conference Feb. 11, McGuinty had this to say: “In a highly competitive, knowledge-based global economy, we are not going succeed in Ontario by pulling stuff out of the ground.

“Our natural resource sector is very important to us but we know that future growth will come on the basis of the development of our imaginations in innovative capacities.”

By Monday’s throne speech, McGuinty had put his imagination to good use — and changed his mind.

His message was mining will save the beleaguered northern economy.

Will Ring Of Fire Ever Burn? – by Terence Corcoran, Financial Post Editor (April/2010)

January 1, 2011December 12, 2010

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Terence Corcoran’s editorial opinion was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine’s April, 2010 issue.

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

Canada’s mining history is full of characters. But a modern award for promotional ingenuity goes to Richard Nemis, the veteran prospecting whiz who came up with “Ring of Fire” as the name for the latest Ontario mining rush. (Terence Corcoran – April, 2010)

Through the summer of 1967, while my hometown, Montreal, hosted Expo ’67, I was elsewhere. Most of the time I was 4,200 feet underground working as an “apprentice miner” at the famed Kerr Addison gold mine in Northern Ontario. Even at that time, the Kerr Addison, while a legendary gold producer, was considered a has-been. Located in Virginiatown, about 50 kilometres east of the great gold centre at Kirkland Lake, the Kerr Addison was a hard-rock stope operation. We would board the cage at ground level for the long and rickety descent, then take a battery-powered ore mover through black tunnels to our stopes where, lit only by our head lamps, we drilled and blasted grey-green rock faces. The next shift we’d return to muck the rock away and drag in heavy six-foot timbers to build supports and prevent cave-ins. Then we’d drill and blast again.

I wasn’t much of miner, but I could lift and move stuff around, which is what apprentice miners do. The first gold was mined at Kerr Addison in 1913, and over its spectacular life it produced 11 million ounces. Since the first gold rush in 1906, the Kirkland Lake gold mining area — of which Kerr Addison was part — produced almost 37-million ounces of gold, worth more than $37 billion at today’s prices.

Will Ontario, or any part of Canada, ever see such mining-sector productivity and wealth creation again? The test will be the Ring of Fire.

Ring of Fire Junior Probe Mines Takes the High—and Hard—Ground – by Michael Schwartz

January 1, 2011December 9, 2010

This Corporate Profile Advertorial about Probe Mines originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of the Ontario Prospector magazine which is produced by the Ontario Prospectors Association and published by Naylor (Canada) Inc.

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

The End of a Joint Venture and 875 Claims Around McFauld’s Lake Make for Exciting Times

No fewer than 875 claims covering around 14,000 hectares mean that Probe Mines controls one of the larger land packages in the McFauld’s Lake greenstone belt stratigraphy. Probe operates four projects in the McFauld’s Lake area: Victory, which is the largest, Tamarack, McFauld’s West and Black Creek. Each offers a unique setting and unique potential within the Ring of Fire.

Probe Mines is confident in its success to date. Its major presence has led to interests in a full range of metals: chromite, nickel, copper, Platinum Group Metals (PGM), base metal Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS), gold and vanadium. Tamarack and Black Creek have demonstrated their potential with the discovery of Cu-rich VMS mineralization and chromite respectively.

In addition to the chromite discovery on Black Creek, considerable untested potential remains on its other properties. They are exactly what Probe Mines CEO David Palmer describes as “grass-roots projects where no major discovery has been made but where the company feels there is still substantial potential for further exploration.”

Probe’s projects lie in sparsely vegetated and subdued topography over a 100 km belt in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario. Very little is known about the geology of the McFauld’s Lake area and most of what is known has come from the company’s own exploration.

Ring of Fire – A Mine Project That Will Transform the Far North – Ian Ross

January 1, 2011December 2, 2010

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 was published in the December, 2010 issue.

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

Two years ago, the Ring of Fire was a hot high-grade chromite discovery resigned to the back pages of the business section.

It had a quirky name inspired by the crescent shape of the mining claims laid down in the swamps of the James Bay lowlands and a Noront Resource’s mining executive’s affinity for all things Johnny Cash.

Then along came a deep-pocketed miner called Cliffs Natural Resources. The Ohio-based international iron ore and coal company has a keen interest in breaking into the stainless steel business and has blue sky ambitions for Ontario’s Far North.

The socio-economic impact for the region, especially for impoverished First Nation
people, will be simply transformational for generations to come.

What has been found, in the muskeg is the stuff of top-secret, high-level boardroom discussions and plenty of chatter in the communities that stand to benefit from a potential $2-billion mine, processing and railroad project.

The mineral potential at McFaulds Lake has been compared to the groundbreaking discoveries of nickel, copper and gold in the early 1900s that opened up the North and forever changed Ontario’s economy.

Sudbury’s Mining Suppliers ‘Well Placed’ to Benefit From Ring of Fire – by Ian Ross

January 1, 2011December 1, 2010

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

The executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) said he’s cautiously optimistic about the opportunities his members may have through high-grade nickel-copper and chromite deposits in the James Bay region known as the “Ring of Fire.”

Dick DeStefano was among those who attended a speech by Wes Hanson, Noront Resources’ president and CEO at a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Copper Cliff Nov. 26.

Hanson outlined the junior mining company’s preliminary plans for a massive underground mine and milling complex beneath the swamps of the James Bay Lowlands.

McFauld’s Lake and the James Bay region is a breadbasket of chromite, nickel, copper, gold, platinum and palladium. Noront is the largest landholder with 120,000 hectares, including its flagship Eagle’s Nest deposit, located 300 kilometres west of DeBeers Canada’s Victor diamond mine.

Ontario’s Resilient Northwest Banks on Education, Public Sector and Ring of Fire Mining Developments – by Livio Di Matteo

January 1, 2011December 1, 2010

Livio Di Matteo is a Professor of Economics at Thunder Bay’s Lakehead University where he has taught since 1990. His research has explored the sustainability of provincial government health spending, historical wealth and asset holding and economic performance and institutions in Northwestern Ontario and the central North American economic region. He writes and comments on public policy and his articles have appeared in the National Post, Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press and Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal. Mr. Di Matteo has started an Economics Blog at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

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

According to the Stockholm Resilience Center (www.stockholmresilience.org), the concept of resilience refers to the capacity of a social-ecological system to withstand perturbations from various types of shock and to then renew itself afterwards. In other words, if a system is resilient, it can deal with change. The forest crisis in Northwestern Ontario was a major economic shock to the region’s economy that resulted in massive employment losses and yet if one looks at the region’s economy and especially its major center – Thunder Bay – one cannot help but notice the resilience of the economy.

Thunder Bay, which has seen three of its four pulp mills close and numerous sawmill job losses over the period 2003-2009, has witnessed increases in many indicators of economic activity suggesting that the economy has been able to adapt to the shock of the forest sector loss.

The relatively resilient economy in Northwest Ontario is being driven by three broad forces: the continued transition towards a knowledge based economy in the region, the expenditure on public sector infrastructure and the growth and development of the mining sector in the region. The knowledge economy in Northwestern Ontario is being spearheaded by the development of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), the Northwestern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and the research work of the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute (TBRRI).

Could Sault Ste. Marie be Site of Ring of Fire Processing? – by Ian Ross

January 1, 2011November 24, 2010

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

Bruce Strapp Exit interview

Sault Ste. Marie is well-positioned to get a share of the chromite processing from the James Bay lowlands, said its outgoing economic development head.

“The value that Sault Ste. Marie will bring to the Ring of Fire is we’ll have one of North America’s biggest steel plants,” said Bruce Strapp, who was preparing in October to take on his new job as executive director of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).

While a number of communities across the North have been vocal in getting a piece of the action to process chromite ore, the Sault has been flying below the radar, but Strapp said the city is far from being out of the loop.

Strapp said with mine development in the massive McFauld’s Lake camp more than five years away, there is no reason to blow the Sault’s horn until the site selectors show up.

“Moving forward and talking to Cliffs (Natural Resources) and saying ‘We want your business’ (makes no sense when) there’s really no business to be had yet.”

McGuinty’s Controversial Far North Act Passes – Ian Ross

January 1, 2011November 8, 2010

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

Far North Act (Bill -191) Brings Out Many Angry Critics and Universal Condemnation Throughout the North

The passage of the Far North Act into law at Queen’s Park this fall wasn’t greeted with sustained applause from Northerners, but with anger and condemnation from all corners.

Natural Resources Minister Linda Jeffrey said the act represents a “new era of social prosperity, economic certainty and environmental protection” that places Ontario as a world leader in fighting global climate change.

However, it’s raised plenty of questions on how the McGuinty government plans to both protect and develop the Far North in setting aside a still-to-be-determined 225,000 square kilometres of boreal forest, or 21 per cent of Ontario’s land mass.

But the highly controversial Bill 191, which places the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) as the lead agency to conduct the land use planning in the James Bay region, has many critics asking if the ministry is up to this herculean task.

Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner doesn’t know if the MNR has the manpower and resources to manage the upcoming flood of traffic, people and business in this sensitive region. Gord Miller said “clearly” the MNR must be the lead agency in Far North because they have legislated care and control of all Crown land in Ontario under the Public Lands Act.

But he’s uncertain if the ministry has the resources to take on the task.

The Ring of Fire – Noront McFaulds Lake Project

January 1, 2011November 5, 2010

This Corporate Profile Advertorial about Noront Resources Inc. originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of the Ontario Prospector magazine which is produced by the Ontario Prospectors Association and published by Naylor (Canada) Inc.

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

Exploration Activities in the Ring of Fire

Noront Resources Ltd. is focused on its McFaulds Lake Project, which includes a number of significant, multiple, high-grade nickel-copper-platinum-palladium, chromite, vanadium and gold discoveries in an area known as the “Ring of Fire,” an emerging multi-metals district located in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario, Canada. Noront is the largest landholder in the Ring of Fire and continues to delineate and prove up its discoveries with NI 43-101 technical and economic reports and a well-funded and aggressive drill plan for 2010 and 2011. The company recently completed Canada’s first NI 43 101 technical resource estimate for chromite and updated its Eagle’s Nest Ni, Cu, PGM NI 43 101 technical resource report in March 2010. Noront is a publicly traded company and is listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol NOT.

Noront’s plans for the future include a three-pronged approach: exploration and regional targeting for additional resources; development and feasibility of the Eagle’s Nest deposit to de-risk the project; and corporate social responsibility with a focus on the environment and aboriginal initiatives.

Read more

Report from the Ontario Prospectors Association – by Gary Clark

January 1, 2011November 5, 2010

Garry Clark is the Executive Director of the Ontario Prospectors Association. This report is from the Fall/Winter edition of The Ontario Prospector magazine published by Naylor (Canada) Inc.

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

Exploration in Ontario continues strong. The projects are varied and seem to be taking a lead role in moving the economy. Commodity and stock prices are staying strong.

Exploration areas that have captured the attention of investors include but are not limited to the Ring of Fire, Timmins, Beardmore-Geraldton, Sudbury, Rainy River, Atikokan and Kirkland Lake. Speaking with explorationists, there are numerous projects with multiple diamond drills working. The constant call to the OPA has been is looking for geologists to work on the various projects.

The Ring of Fire has captured the attention of Queens Park and the early spring budget focused on the economic importance of this exploration play on the entire province. The Ontario Geological Survey is completing various projects to help explorers in the region, and the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry is creating a new position to help move the project along. Chromite was not really a targeted commodity 10 years ago in Canada, let alone North America.

The work of the geologists in the area identified the potential of the area while drilling for Copper-Nickel. The First Nations leaders in the area have been working on a steep learning curve to identify the effects and potential for their communities. If the Ring of Fire project continues in the same direction it will be one of the largest industrial developments since the development of the Steep Rock iron deposits. Ideas of railway access, developing projects in low swampy lands and the potential location of a chromite processing plant have community leaders and developers across the north of Ontario scrambling to align for the potential economic stimulus.

The Ring of Fire: Will Fingers Be Burnt? – by Michael Schwartz

January 1, 2011November 2, 2010

This article originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of the Ontario Prospector which is published by the Ontario Prospectors Association.

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

“There is no doubt that the Ring of Fire brings both enormous promise as well as enormous challenges for all. The enormity of the discoveries within the Ring of Fire could bring multi-generational community benefits if the regulatory roadmap is clear, if enabling mechanisms for community participation and partnership are created by government, and if industry brings their best practices forward.” – Mike Fox, Co-Chair of the PDAC Aboriginal Affairs Committee and President of Boreal Prospectors Association

On April 8, 2010, about 150 hungry people gathered at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay to share a meal and explore opportunities at The Far North Feast. The venue was Thunder Bay, chosen because of its proximity to the Ring of Fire, a massive mineral deposit offering both benefits and challenges to exploration and mining companies, government at all levels, environmental agencies and, most crucially in the long-term, First Nations citizens in the vicinity.

Chairman of this year’s feast was Mike Fox, coincidentally both president of the Boreal Prospectors Association and co-chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Committee for the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). He explains the purpose of the feast: “The overall intention is to highlight opportunities for progress and collaboration… Our aim is to show that the players are collaborating with the community, the province and its ministry, creating an enabling environment for others in the future.”

Recognising just how diverse and complex the situation is, the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry has established a new position of Excutive Lead, Ring of Fire Secretariat to develop the strategic vision and framework to facilitate the successful development of the Ring of Fire initiative and partner with other ministries to develop creative solutions that meet the interests of northern Ontarians, Aboriginal communities and the mining industry, while achieving government business objectives.

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Ring of Fire Railroad Study Staying on Track – by Ian Ross

January 1, 2011November 2, 2010

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 was published in the October, 2010 issue.

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

Despite the frenzy of exploration drilling and company acquistions in the Ring of Fire, engineering work continues for a proposed chromite ore haul railroad into the James Bay lowlands.

Krech Ojard & Associates is preparing a rail feasibility study for the construction of a 350-kilometre-long railroad from McFaulds Lake, south to Exton in northwestern Ontario.

The preferred route would largely follow glacial eskers that start south of the Albany River. These gravel rises make for ideal track bed in an otherwise swampy landscape.

Nels Ojard, special projects manager at Krech Ojard, said the majority of work this past summer was focused on the geotechnical program.

Soil samples that were collected along the length of the route last winter and spring were being processed and evaluated to test their ability to support heavy bridge loads and frost susceptability.