Municipal delegations from Thunder Bay and Greenstone headed to Cleveland in mid-November to each make their best pitch to Cliffs Natural Resources to land a ferrochrome processing plant catering to the Ring of Fire mineral deposits.
The Thunder Bay Alliance, consisting of Mayor Keith Hobbs, economic development officials and the Fort William First Nation, presented their business case and the strategic advantages of locating the plant in the northwestern Ontario port city.
“Our presentation of the Thunder Bay business case to Cliffs is a key aspect of the city's broader mining strategy and is among many economic development initiatives aimed at developing the city as a regional centre of exploration and mining,” said John Mason, mining services project manager with the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission in a Nov. 14 statement.
The city is promoting a brownfield site on the Fort William First Nation to Cliffs as well as nearby port facilities and a government generating station in its presentation.
Hot on their heels were a group from Greenstone that included Mayor Ron Beaulieu, former Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Charles Fox, and former provincial energy minister-turned-consultant George Smitherman.
Greenstone, which already stands to benefit as an important railway junction to the Ring of Fire at its Exton site, wants to grab the ferrochrome processing as well.
In a Nov. 17 statement, Beaulieu said Cliffs officials asked “tough, but important and insightful questions” but clearly are “giving a lot of consideration to the benefits of the Exton site.”
Meanwhile, Cliffs environmental and First Nations staff were in Thunder Bay and Sudbury for public open houses. Thunder Bay and Capreol, on the outskirts of Sudbury, are two potential sites for the smelter.
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