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Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Mineral processing plant will bring hundreds of jobs, business opportunities to Sudbury area – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – May 29, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

First-of-its-kind $800-$900 million facility, processing Ring of Fire nickel, will give Wyloo an edge in electric battery manufacturing

Hundreds of jobs and economic development opportunities will be created in the region when Wyloo Canada builds its multi-million-dollar minerals processing plant in the City of Greater Sudbury.

Announced on May 29, the facility will be the first in Canada to process nickel sulphate and nickel-dominant precursor cathode active material (pCAM) — minerals needed to make the batteries used in electric vehicles.

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Wyloo Canada to build Ring of Fire facility in Sudbury (updated) – by Staff (Sudbury Star – May 29, 2024)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Wyloo CEO Canada Kristan Straub says the facility would provide the missing piece in Canada’s aspirations to develop a domestic EV battery supply chain

Wyloo Canada announced this morning that it plans to build a downstream battery materials processing facility in Sudbury. It will cost up to $900 million to build and will create several hundred jobs, officials said at the EDome this morning.

It will cost up to $900 million to build and will create several hundred jobs, officials said at the EDome this morning. Wyloo said it has an agreement with the City of Greater Sudbury to secure land to build the battery materials processing facility. The new facility will fill a critical gap in Canada’s electric vehicle battery supply chain by establishing Canada’s first mine-to-precursor cathode active material (pCAM) integrated solution.

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WYLOO NEWS RELEASE: Canada’s First Downstream Battery Materials Processing Facility to be Built in Sudbury (May 29, 2024)

GREATER SUDBURY, May 29, 2024 – Wyloo has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Greater Sudbury to secure a parcel of land to build a downstream battery materials processing facility. The new facility will fill a critical gap in Canada’s electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain by establishing Canada’s first mine-to-precursor cathode active material (pCAM) integrated solution.

Wyloo CEO Canada Kristan Straub said the facility would provide the missing piece in Canada’s aspirations to develop a domestic EV battery supply chain, by producing low-carbon nickel sulphate and nickel-dominant pCAM, key ingredients for EV batteries.

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Canada’s next EV supply chain plant landing in Port Colborne, Ont. – by Janyce McGregor (CBC News Politics – May 13, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Joint venture between Asahi Kasei Corp., Honda Canada will build Canada’s 1st lithium ion separator plant

The next community set for a massive boost to its local economy as part of Honda Canada’s $15-billion investment to establish a Canadian electric vehicle supply chain will be Port Colborne, Ont.

Company executives are expected to join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, as well as federal Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Ontario’s economic development minister, Vic Fedeli, and municipal leaders at an official announcement on Tuesday.

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The true cost of critical minerals – by Emilie Cameron, Rosemary Collard & Jessica Dempsey (National Observer – May 2, 2024)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

The 2024 federal budget bolsters Canada’s ambitions to be a global supplier of critical minerals. Corporate tax incentives and shorter environmental review periods have been added to an earlier commitment of $4 billion in support of mining copper, lithium and other minerals essential to green technologies like e-vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.

Amid a global scramble to secure critical minerals supply chains, Canada is highlighting its environmentally sustainable approach to extraction, anchored in “respect for Indigenous and treaty rights.” What does all this look like on the ground?

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Ring of Fire road talks still in ‘early stages’ despite premier’s hints: Aroland chief – by Jack Hauen (The Trillium – April 29, 2024)

https://www.thetrillium.ca/

Chief Sonny Gagnon said he hopes to get a deal done in his two-year term, which began in November

While he’s “optimistic” about getting a deal done at some point in his two-year term, Aroland First Nation Chief Sonny Gagnon said the first part of the road to the Ring of Fire isn’t as close as the premier is making it out to be.

“We had great conversations with Aroland, the Chief of Aroland. We’re about that far away from signing a deal to get the first 80 kilometres of road,” Ford said last week, nearly pinching together his thumb and index finger.

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Northern Ontario remains idled in the electric vehicle revolution – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 25, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

PM and premier talk up critical minerals at Honda plant expansion, but funding support for Northern mining and processing projects slow to roll out

The mining of critical minerals is essential to Canada’s growth in the electric vehicle sector, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford on the occasion of a “historic” and “generational” $15-billion investment by Honda Motor Co. in southern Ontario.

In formulating a strategy to establish secure a “start-to-finish” battery chain ecosystem, Trudeau said on April 25 that Canada has the abundant critical mineral supply that the rest of the world wants, the available skilled talent, and advanced manufacturing capacity to build the innovative economy of the future.

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OPINION: Can Hudson Bay and James Bay territory be saved before it’s too late? – by Tanya Talaga (Globe and Mail – April 5, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Something hopeful is stirring among the Omushkego communities in Northern Ontario. The communities, along with Fort Severn and Weenusk First Nations, have hatched a plan to save one of the last vast, untouched areas of the planet from an industry quickly advancing northward to mine critical minerals, blasting through ecologically sensitive areas to do so. They know all too well how hard it is to stop the hungry mouths of the South, with their insatiable need for the resources of the North.

It’s a reflection of the weird contradiction in which the world finds itself: In order to cool a warming planet, the argument goes, we have to mine the Earth for critical minerals to make electric vehicles that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, destroying the peatlands of the far North – giant storehouses for an estimated 35 billion tonnes of carbon – in the process.

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Proponents see northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire opposition melting like ice roads – Colin McCelland (Northern Miner – April 4, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Construction timelines remain fuzzy but proponents are still optimistic two and half years into studying roads to serve the Ring of Fire critical minerals region in northern Ontario.

Three all-season roads totalling 362 km are planned for the area 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay. The main highway would start at the end of a forestry road north of Aroland First Nation and the village of Nakina and head to the Ring of Fire. One branch would run to the Marten Falls First Nation to the east while another would connect to the Webequie First Nation to the west.

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Indigenous consultation is key to the Ring of Fire becoming Canada’s economic superpower – by Andrew Grant, Badriyya Yusuf, Dimitrios Panagos and Matthew I. Mitchell (The Conversation – March 20, 2024)

https://theconversation.com/

Many of the 30,000 attendees of the March 2024 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention harbour a “wild desire” to extract the mineral riches of Canada’s $67 billion Ring of Fire, in the words of Johnny Cash’s well-known song of the same name.

While some might be attracted by the desire to make money, others could be driven by concern for our planet and the belief that the region’s minerals can help reduce carbon emissions and support a just energy transition. As some Indigenous groups have pointed out, however, the construction of roads and mining in the Ring of Fire represents a significant disruption to traditional ways of life and fragile ecosystems.

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NEWS RELEASE: Juno and Marten Falls First Nation Sign Exploration Agreement (March 7, 2024)

TORONTO, March 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Juno Corp. (“Juno” or the “Company”) and Marten Falls First Nation (“MFFN”) are pleased to announce a new cooperation agreement to foster economic participation opportunities and advance exploration and potential mining partnerships in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire. The Exploration Agreement (the “Agreement”) was signed on March 6, 2024, in Toronto, Ontario between Chief Bruce Achneepineskum and Jacob McKinnon, President & COO of Juno.

Chief Achneepineskum of Marten Falls First Nation said, “Marten Falls First Nation Chief and Council are pleased to announce with Juno an exploration agreement on Marten Falls First Nation traditional territory. It is the start of a productive and beneficial agreement that fosters goodwill and open engagement on exploration initiatives and issues.”

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PDAC: Faster permitting key to advancing critical mineral projects, panel warns – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – March 6, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Governments must help cut permitting and production timelines if Canada is to produce enough minerals to reach net zero goals by 2050, says the CEO of Ring of Fire project developer Wyloo Metals Canada.

“There are a lot of projects near to approval. The big ask is the shortening of the time frame,” Kristan Straub, CEO of Wyloo Metals Canada said on Monday at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto.

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Two First Nations sign Ring of Fire agreement as another launches court battle – by Jack Hauen (The Trillium – March 5, 2024)

https://www.thetrillium.ca/

Simultaneous press conferences outlined the promise of, and frustration with, Ontario’s mining boom

Four subway stops away from each other, three First Nations highlighted two very different experiences. At Queen’s Park Tuesday morning, Chief of Cat Lake First Nation Russell Wesley held a press conference to draw attention to an injunction his community has secured to prevent the commencement of road construction for a First Mining Gold project in its territory.

The community has initiated an Anishinaabe-led impact assessment on the project, which it expects will take a year, but the government wouldn’t wait and authorized the mining company to construct the road. Cat Lake First Nation won a temporary injunction to halt the project while its case alleging the government failed in its duty to consult the First Nation can be heard.

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Ontario poised to become community builders in the Ring of Fire – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 5, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Province doubles down on Far North roads, infrastructure during PDAC week

The Ontario government is prepared to jump into the community infrastructure construction business for those First Nations already on board with mine development in the Ring of Fire. Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations signed a Community Development Agreement with the province at the PDAC mining show in Toronto, March 5.

No monetary figures were included in a news release but a general list of “shovel-ready infrastructure projects” deemed eligible to receive provincial support included health and training facilities, recreation centres, grocery stores, upgrades to nursing stations, commercial buildings and labour force development programs.

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PDAC 2024: First Nations manage tricky work of Indigenous consultation on Ring of Fire road – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – March 5, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Consultations continue with northern Ontario First Nations who are opposed to mining activity in the remote Ring of Fire region. The Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations are the only two in the region to voice support for road and mining projects, while others such as the Neskantaga, Grassy Narrows, Wapekeka, and Big Trout Lake First Nations oppose the projects due to environmental concerns.

“We need community support and for us to be ready for mining development and large projects in our area,” said Marten Falls First Nation chief Bruce Achneepineskum on Tuesday at a Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) seminar. “It’s all part of what we call meaningful participation and taking the lead on these large scale projects. (In the past) we were treated as minorities without significant say on our traditional lands.”

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