The anticipation is building on what community or communities will host the mineral processing facilities catering to a future chromite and base metals mine in the Ring of Fire, located in the James Bay Lowlands.
And the Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle is feeling some heat as his home riding is publicly jockeying for the mill.
In a Jan. 4 speech in Thunder Bay, Gravelle said the provincial government is “putting forth the best possible business case” to ensure the major mining players place the ferrochrome processing facilities in Ontario.
“I can assure you that we will continue working diligently to ensure that Ontario benefits from value-added opportunities such as ferrochrome processing and a wide range of opportunities in the supply and services sector,” said Gravelle. “The Ring of Fire is a tremendous economic opportunity for our province, and I want to make this opportunity a reality.”
Cliffs Natural Resources and Noront Resources are the two major mining companies with ambitions on bringing their nickel, chromite and other base metal projects into production as early as 2015.
Gravelle told Northern Ontario Business late last fall that six communities deemed suitable to host the processing are being short-listed by the key mining players, reportedly only weeks away from being revealed. He did not repeat or further elaborate in last week's remarks.
Gravelle said the provincial government is actively involved in discussions surrounding infrastructure and community planning, and minimizing environmental impacts as the companies move toward developing their feasibility studies.
Thunder Bay's new mayor Keith Hobbs took issue with Gravelle's remarks, telling a local television station that as the MPP for Thunder Bay-North, Gravelle should be pushing hard for the chromite processing to be located in the city, “not in Sault Ste. Marie and not in Timmins.”
The municipalities of Greenstone, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, as well as a town along the north shore of Lake Superior with a natural harbour, could be the host communities for all or part of the processing.
The excitement is ramping up so much even the Teamsters are getting into the act.
In a Jan. 6 statement, William Briehl, head of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees, said both Ottawa and Queen's Park must use their clout to ensure ore from the Ring of Fire is processed in Canada.
“Premier Dalton McGuinty's government has called the Ring of Fire the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century and yet we understand the plan is to send the raw materials to China to be refined,” said Biehl.
Reminding the McGuinty government of the closure of Xstrata Copper metallurgical site in Timmins, Brehl added the government must protect the economy of Ontario as equally as its protects the environment.
Brehl, whose union represents Ontario shortline railway workers, proposes shipping chromite ore from the James Bay Lowlands south to Nakina, then east on the Canadian National Railway's main line before transferring it over to the Ontario Northland Railway for shipment to Timmins and the shuttered Met site for processing. The mill was closed by Xstrata Copper last year.
“All that is needed is the will of the politicians to insist that the business leaders do this instead of sending it all off to China,” said Brehl.
Under Ontario's Mining Act, Section 91 states all Ontario ores or minerals must be “treated and refined in Canada.” Companies seeking to process Ontario ore outside of Canada may have their mining lands, claims and mining rights voided.
However, companies can apply for an exemption to the mineral development and lands branch of the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. Processing the request takes three to four months, according to the ministry's website.
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