Cliffs Natural Resources announced this week it is suspending environmental assessment (EA) activities at its Black Thor chromite project in the James Bay lowlands.
The Ohio-based iron and coal miner maintains it won't advance Black Thor until it receives federal and provincial environmental approvals, until mutually beneficial agreements are reached with area First Nations, and governments finally come to the table to address the lack of infrastructure to the Ring of Fire.
In a June 12 statement, Cliffs listed the unresolved issues as delays in approving the terms of reference for the provincial EA process, further “uncertainty” regarding the federal EA due to legal challenges by area First Nations, unresolved land surface right issues following a February 2013 Ontario Mining and Land Commissioner hearing, and “unfinished agreements” with the province that Cliffs considers “critical to the project's economic viability.”
Cliffs said these issues are impeding its EA progress and the feasibility study of Black Thor, considered one of the flagship projects in Ontario's Ring of Fire.
"While most aspects of the chromite project have advanced according to plan, temporarily suspending the environmental assessment work acknowledges that certain critical elements of the project's future are not solely within our control and require the active support and participation by other interested parties such as government agencies and impacted First Nation communities," said Bill Boor, Cliffs' senior vice president of global ferroalloys, in a statement.
"We remain excited about this project and its potential for Cliffs and Northern Ontario; however, given the current unresolved issues, we cannot and will not unilaterally move the process forward and must manage our resources appropriately.
"In a practical sense, we've taken the EA and other project work as far as possible without resolution of these issues," said Boor.
"Although we are temporarily suspending our EA activities, we will continue our work with the Government of Ontario and First Nation communities and look forward to restarting the work on the EA when we are collectively ready to make this project a reality."
