NEWS RELEASE: Ring of Fire decision ill-considered says Greenstone Mayor

(Greenstone, May 9, 2012) Mayor Renald Beaulieu of Greenstone, the closest municipality to the Ring of Fire mineral find, was underwhelmed by today’s announcement from Cliffs Natural Resources to locate the chromite refinery near Sudbury.

“It is truly unfortunate that Cliffs and the Provincial Government chose not to meaningfully consult with the directly affected First Nations and Greenstone prior to making and announcing their decision,” stated Mayor Beaulieu.

Important questions remain unanswered by Cliffs and the Province said Beaulieu. In particular, it’s hard to see how you can lead with a decision on a refinery location without an agreement on how you are going to obtain the ore body in the first place. 

– Why are First Nation interests being ignored? Today’s update confirms the suspicion of First Nations that a secret deal has been worked out between the Government of Ontario and Cliffs. That deal doesn’t place any value on the support First Nations have offered for the project nor does it take their position on the mining activity seriously.

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How to sustainably turn Canada’s resources into wealth – by Brian Emmett (Globe and Mail – May 7, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Brian Emmett is a principal at the Ottawa-based consulting firm Sussex Circle. He served as Canada’s first commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, and was an assistant deputy minister (policy) at Environment Canada, a vice-president (policy) at the Canadian International Development Agency and an assistant deputy minister (Canadian Forest Service) at Natural Resources Canada.

The way policy-makers and Canadians think about natural resources (fossil fuels, minerals and forest resources) is fundamentally important to the Canadian economy. How we perceive and evaluate our natural resource endowment shapes policy frameworks, which, in turn, can have profound effects on the way we live and the way we earn our living.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper touched on this during the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena last month, saying: “Resource development has vast power to change the way a nation lives. … It is also something which is tremendously responsive to actions of government.”

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MINING WATCH NEWS RELEASE: Ontario Could Get Burned by Flawed Ring of Fire Process

http://www.miningwatch.ca/home

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Ottawa, May 9, 2012. In paired press releases the Ontario Government and U.S. mining company Cliffs Natural Resources today announced plans to proceed with the next step in the development of a chromite deposit in the area dubbed the “Ring of Fire”. The remote area of northern Ontario and the various access routes to it are in the traditional territories of several Ojibway, Oji-Cree, and Cree First Nations.
 
The announcements confirmed earlier indications that Sudbury could be the location of a proposed ferrochrome processing facility and that Cliffs’ proposed transportation corridor, known as the North-South Route could be developed to link the mine to the existing road and rail systems to the south. This transportation route is competing with another that would make greater use of existing roads and is being proposed by Noront Resources. Each route has its supporters among various First Nations in the area. Northern municipalities and First Nations have also suggested alternative locations for the processing plant.
 
If the mineral resources of the Ring of Fire are to be developed, value added processing done in Ontario – in accordance with Section 91 of the Mining Act – is certainly in the best interest of the province. Value added processing of mined minerals can greatly increase employment and taxation opportunities.

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Enbridge AGM: Pipeline protest drums pits pipelines against land, water – by VAnessa Lu (Toronto Star – May 10, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline appears locked on a collision course, as First Nations chiefs put Enbridge officials on notice again that they won’t budge from their opposition.

“We are a very patient people,” warned Chief Na’moks of the Wet-suwet’en nation, near Smithers, B.C., at Enbridge’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Wednesday.

“We don’t base the wellbeing of life on money,” said April Churchill, vice-president of the Haida Nation. “Money will not change our minds. “There is no compensation that is acceptable that will kill off cultures and kill off people.”

First Nations leaders have repeatedly sent their message to Enbridge officials, and they travelled thousands of kilometres from British Columbia by train, to make their point again in Toronto.

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Frustrated [First Nations – No consultation] – by Jamie Smith (tbnewswatch.com – May 9, 2012)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

The region’s First Nations and municipal leaders are frustrated and disappointed by a lack of planning from the province and Cliff’s Natural Resources on the Ring of Fire.

In the wake of an announcement Wednesday morning that Cliff’s will set up their ferrochrome processor in Capreol, near Sudbury, leaders from across Northwestern Ontario sounded off on the province’s lack of commitment and consultation with the region.

“It was a great day for Northeastern Ontario. It was a very sad day for Northwestern Ontario I can’t say it any plainer than that,” Thunder Bay mayor Keith Hobbs said.

Natural Resources minister Michael Gravelle and Aboriginal Affairs minister Kathleen Wynne faced a cold reception from regional leaders when they announced Cliff’s $3.3 billion investment to build its chromite mine, North-South all-season road from the Ring of Fire and processing facility.

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North [Ontario] to reap benefits – by Carol Muligan (Sudbury Star – May 10, 2012)

 The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Sudbury will be the home of a $1.8-billion ferrochrome processing plant to be built by Cliffs Natural Resources, but all of Northern Ontario is “poised to reap the benefits” of the company’s development of the Ring of Fire, says Rick Bartolucci.

Cliffs announced Wednesday morning that its board of directors has moved its proposed chromite project from the pre-feasibility to the feasibility stage.

At the same time, Northern Development and Mines Minister Bartolucci announced in Sudbury that the coveted smelter to process chromite ore mined and concentrated in the northwest will be built near Capreol by 2015.

Chromite is a key component in the manufacture of stainless steel, a product we need for our “day-to-day lives,” Bartolucci told about 75 people at a news conference at the Willet Green Miller Centre at Laurentian University. About 450 jobs will be created in the construction phase and 450 in the production phase of the smelter.

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Cliffs will not be swayed to change [Sudbury] location – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – May 10, 2012)

  The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The smelter coming to Greater Sudbury is the largest project Cliffs Natural Resources has ever conceived. “It’s a massive project for Cliffs, it’s the biggest project by far that we have ever tackled,” Cliffs’ President Joseph Carrabba said Wednesday evening at Laurentian University.

Carrabba was in Sudbury for a few hours, following Wednesday morning’s announcement that its $1.8-billion ferrochrome smelter will set up shop near Capreol.

The Municipality of Greenstone, Thunder Bay and Timmins were also considered as locations for the smelter. But in the end, Greater Sudbury was just what Cliffs was looking for.

“We had to be in a place where mining is known, it’s welcomed and we can work through the business practices,” said Carrabba. “It looks like it’s a great place for the technical skills, the mine service skills that we need and a great opportunity for a great workforce as well … this was the right spot and we are very pleased to be here.”

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Ring of Fire mineral development faces burning issues in Ontario – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Seeking to get in on a resource boom that to this point has passed it by, Ontario has taken a major step toward developing the mineral-rich “Ring of Fire” in the province’s far north.

Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci announced Wednesday that the government has reached a framework agreement with the U.S.-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. for a $3.3-billion investment, including a $1.8-billion smelting plant in the Sudbury area.

But despite the buoyant tone from both sides of the deal, sources in and around government acknowledge Mr. Bartolucci’s target date of 2015 is highly optimistic. That’s because there remain a great number of hurdles to be overcome before much-needed jobs can be created from extraction or processing of chromite, a key ingredient used to make stainless steel.

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Kinross, gold producers vow to fight back as shares tumble despite rising prices – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Canada’s big gold miners are under siege in the markets, their shares tumbling even as bullion rides high, and they’re vowing to fight back.

“I’m a shareholder and my family is a shareholder, and we’re determined to change that around,” Tye Burt, chief executive officer of Kinross Gold Corp., declared Wednesday, referring to the company’s languishing stock price.

Mr. Burt and others in the industry are lamenting the gap between the value of gold stocks and the price of bullion, which is holding near-record highs after a surge that is almost a decade old now.

Kinross shares are down 60 per cent in the past eight months. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX-T37.650.942.56%), the world’s biggest producer, has seen its stock sink 34 per cent since September, while smaller rivals such as Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI-T13.750.332.46%) and Iamgold Corp. (IMG-T10.80-0.07-0.64%) have suffered declines of 27 per cent and 55 per cent respectively from their 52-week highs.

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Changes to reviews of foreign takeovers still miss mark – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – May 7, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA— Ottawa is promising to tell Canadians a lot more about foreign takeovers – the ones it reviews and the ones it rejects. That’s a good thing.

But it’s still well short of what the Conservative government pledged in late 2010 after abruptly killing BHP Billiton’s hostile bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and then-industry minister Tony Clement promised two things. They said they would clarify the key test used to judge foreign takeovers – the so-called “net benefit” determination. And secondly, they said they would get the House of Commons industry committee to review the Investment Canada Act.
 
Neither of these things has happened. Instead, the government is giving the Industry Minister new powers to disclose more information about takeovers without betraying commercial secrets. The bill also allows the government to compel would-be foreign acquirers to put up bonds to backstop their commitments to create jobs or invest in Canada.

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Tom Mulcair’s call for environmental responsibility hits nerve in the West – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – May 9, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

When Tom Mulcair, then a prospective NDP leader, wrote in an influential magazine last winter that Alberta’s oilsands have artificially driven up the Canadian dollar and hurt manufacturing in central Canada, his remarks received scant notice.
 
Mulcair was largely adding his voice to a view espoused by Premier Dalton McGuinty and a number of commentators and analysts.
 
When he repeated an abridged version of his Policy Options argument on the CBC last weekend, the reaction in western Canada verged on the hysterical.

Stephen Harper surrogates in right-wing media and think tanks joined Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall in hurling invective at the NDP leader, accusing him of trying to divide the country, demonizing the West, pandering to Quebec and misunderstanding history and politics.
 
It appears that in a matter of a few months two things had happened to turn an op-ed piece in a policy magazine into a civil war.

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Ring of Fire burns by Timmins – by Mark Prior (Timmins Daily Press – May 10, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

U.S. firm selects Sudbury area for $1.8-billion investment

Even though the final decision wasn’t a shocker, it still stings. U.S.-based firm Cliffs Natural Resources selected its Sudbury-area site in Capreol for a $1.8-billion investment for a plant to process chromite from its Ring of Fire deposit.

The Ring of Fire, located about 540 kilometre northeast of Thunder Bay, is the biggest mineral discovery of the past 100 years. It contains a vast array of minerals, including the largest deposit of chromite ever found in North America. Chromite is a key ingredient in stainless steal.

Timmins had made the final four location choices of Cliffs for the smelter. Thunder Bay and Greenstone were also being considered. Officials with Cliffs had visited every community in the running. Delegates from all the communities had made their best pitches to Cliffs representatives, hoping to lure the thousands of direct and indirect jobs that come with the project.

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Smelter announcement ‘like a funeral’ for northwest – by CBC News Thunder Bay (May 9, 2012)

  http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/
 
Thunder Bay mayor, First Nations leaders weigh in on Cliffs Natural Resources decision to located chromite smelter in Sudbury
 
Reaction in Thunder Bay to Cliffs Natural Resources announcement that it will locate its ferrochrome smelter in the Sudbury area is one of disappointment.
 
Mayor Keith Hobbs said “it was like coming to a funeral,” when he attended a press conference Wednesday morning where he learned the mining company would process the chromite from its Ring of Fire mining project in Sudbury.
 
Natural Resources minister Michael Gravelle said northwestern Ontario would benefit from the project, and spoke about the number of overall jobs that would be created and how the northwest would play a role in the Ring of Fire development.

But that didn’t ease the concerns of municipal and First Nations leaders in the room. According to Thunder Bay CBC News reporter Jeff Walters, Hobbs said consultation between the minister and Cliffs obviously didn’t happen. Hobbs said there was a lack of leadership, adding he was disappointed in Gravelle — and refused to shake his hand.

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NEWS RELEASE: United Steelworkers Welcome Announcement of New Smelter in Sudbury

TORONTO, May 9, 2012 /CNW/ – The United Steelworkers union (USW) welcomes today’s announcement by Cliffs Natural Resources that they will be constructing a new smelter in Sudbury, Ontario.
 
“This project and its spin-offs will provide a much-needed boost to the hard-working families of Sudbury and Northern Ontario,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard.
 
“Thousands of jobs will be created during development of the Sudbury smelter, the chromite mine and concentrating plant in northwestern Ontario and all the related infrastructure,” Gerard said. “Once operations begin, hundreds of family-supporting jobs will be maintained in the North for many years.”
 
“Today’s announcement will bring jobs and economic benefits to Northern Ontario, and that must include First Nations communities,” noted Ken Neumann, USW National Director for Canada.

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NEWS RELEASE: NAN SAYS RING OF FIRE DEVELOPMENT GETTING OFF ON WRONG FOOT

Wednesday May 9, 2012

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THUNDER BAY, ON: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) said today’s announcement to build a $1.8-billion chromite processing facility near Sudbury and ignoring First Nations is not the way to build a relationship with the First Nations.

“I am disappointed with today’s announcement as it is obvious that Cliffs and the Government of Ontario are not listening to and not respecting First Nations affected by development in the Ring of Fire,” said NAN Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose.

“The affected First Nations have put forward comprehensive proposals and are trying to work with government on a constructive basis to play a major role in the development of the Ring of Fire. This is a classic case of moving forward without First Nation consultation again. We are not starting off on the right foot.”

Natural Resources Minister Michael Gravelle and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne made the announcement at a news conference in Thunder Bay today announcing that Cliffs Natural Resources intends to build a $1.8-billion chromite processing facility in Capreol, near Sudbury, instead of Greenstone near Aroland First Nation.

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