For many North Shore communities, mining and mineral exploration could be a salvation from the devastation caused by the wave of forest mill closures.
Exploration north of Lake Superior for gold, platinum, copper, diamonds and even chromite in the James Bay Lowlands is offering a way out of economic stagnation.
The Town of Marathon is jumping at those kind of opportunities.
"We’re looking at Marathon as a logistical hub for a number of different types of facilities, not just the Ring of Fire," said Daryl Skworchinski, Marathon’s economic development manager.
Marathon already has a strong connection with the Hemlo gold camp, 40 kilometres away. About 90 per cent of the 700 workers at Barrick’s David Bell and Williams Mines live in town.
Closer in, Toronto-based Marathon PGM plans to carve out an open-pit base metals mine on the town’s outskirts within two years once the environmental permitting is complete.
As well, another junior gold miner, MetalCorp, is working some exploration properties east of the Barrick mines.
What communities are finding out is that mineral exploration produces nice economic jolts with ongoing spending.
Marathon PGM established a core shack in town and has two fully staffed offices but their consulting firms also stay in the community for an extended period to do environmental work, said Skworchinski.
The companies employ local contractors for road building and use the “soft services” like hotels, gas stations, restaurants, medical and recreational facilities.
"For every dollar they spend and circulates, the multiplier is two-and-half or three times within the community,” said Skworchinski.
With Marathon PGM two years away from production, the town will not rest on its laurels and assume that employment will automatically be created.
“We’ve been weak in the past to attract supply-type businesses,” said Skworchinski. “We’ve had very candid discussions with Marathon PGM on how we can capitalize on building a new mine that’s 10 kilometres from downtown Marathon. Can equipment be serviced here, rather than in Sudbury?"
While mining may not replace the 200 jobs lost at Marathon Pulp last year, a new economic development corporation is making a vigorous push toward creating support and service jobs.
About 12 local businesses supply the Hemlo gold mines, but the town’s new economic development corporation has a five-year mandate to expand to grow out that sector.
A possible open-pit mine at McFaulds Lake by 2016 has created excitement among the residents of Nakina, in the rural municipality of Greenstone.
“I’m just becoming aware of the size and scope of the Ring of Fire,” said Greenstone municipal councillor Jay Daiter. “The degree of exploration is such that we’re just scratching the surface.”
Nakina could directly benefit from a proposed 350-kilometre-long railroad from McFaulds Lake down to Exton, just west of Nakina, where it would connect with the Canadian National Railway.
Daiter said the miner is doing its best to temper the excitement as being “too early and speculative. Because so many Northern Ontario communities are hurting, people want to be optimistic. It’s just too big to ignore.”
The most obvious measure of activity is their 3,500-foot airstrip which is a jumping-off point to the Ring.
The airport averaged between 12,000 to 14,000 aircraft movements each month through the first three months of this year. Much of it was helicopter traffic related to the geotechnical work being done on the proposed ore haul railroad as well as supply aircraft heading for ice strips at the exploration camps.
“The aviation business is alive and well in Nakina,” said Daiter.
Tourist hotels and restaurants were busy during the winter months and there’s much more traffic (by Nakina standards) on Highway 584, now dubbed the Ring of Fire Highway.
“The hype on this is just starting,” said Daiter, who described the community as being in a “state of readiness.”
While speaking at winter carnival a year ago, Daiter noticed many in the crowd were unemployed sawmill workers waiting on their severance packages from Buchanan Lumber.
“What do you say to people so down in the mouth?”
What instills more hope in many residents is the possibility that the area could potentially host some of the chromite processing. Daiter said the industry partners must make that choice, but his municipality doesn’t intend to be complacent in lobbying for it.
“Clearly, Greenstone wants that smelter in our area. Everyone wants their piece of the cheese on this and some want an even bigger piece,” laughs Daiter. “We talk about collaboration but when it comes to something like this, we’re running in competitive mode.”
Ongoing mining and mineral exploration is providing some hope in the Township of Wawa, population 3,200.
Maury O’Neill, CEO of the Wawa Economic Development Corporation, is encouraged by the production numbers she hears from Wesdome Gold Mines, just up the Trans-Canada Highway. In operation since 1987, the former River Gold mine produced more than 96,000 ounces of gold last year.
Many miners own houses in Wawa.
“Wesdome has had a great impact on the community, not only in the assay lab (they set up in town) but they buy food supplies and have equipment serviced in Wawa.” O’Neill said the existence of Wesdome hasn’t really resulted in any new service companies coming to town. If anything, gold production has allowed businesses that once served the Algoma Ore Division to “basically stay alive.”
