Page 46 Contd on pg 47 W ork on Ring of Fir e Per colates in 2012 G a rd ew i n e N o r t h Nor t hern Bulk Nor t hern Car t age Nor t hern Deck N o r t h e r n L o g i s t i c s Nor t hern P a r c el www gar de winecom O u r ne t w ork i s ou r s t r e ngth Garde w ine is proud t o pro v ide a wide range of t r an s p or ta t ion and logi st ics solu t ion s t o On t a rio s mining and f o restr y industries By Frank Giorno Preparatory work leading to the devel opment of the vast mineral resources in an area in Northwestern Ontario known as the Ring of Fire continued to percolate in 2012 The Ring of Fire is the name given to an area of rich mineral deposits located in the muskeg swamps in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern On tario approximately 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay and 70 km east of the W e bequie First Nation The area contains lar ge deposits of chromite nickel copper gold and other valu able minerals The area is isolated and can only be accessed by air Most of the work being done by the 23 companies with claims in the Ring of Fire mining camp is in the explo ration stage with over 278 million munities along the proposed transpor tation corridor which includes an all weather northsouth road which links to a rail line where trucked ore con centrates would be placed on railcars for hauling to the proposed chromite Sudbury A third company KWG Resources Inc is undertaking a geotechnical as sessment for a potential rail line from and markets It also reported on the results of bore hole samples taken on its Big Daddy property T w o other companies Bold V e ntures and MacDonald Mines announced the results of their drilling programs which both showed promising results for future mining developments In September a new player arrived on tail the mineral content available for extraction T w o companies Clif fs Natural Re sources Inc Black Thor Property and Noront Resources Ltd Eagle s Nest Property are completing their respective joint federal and provincial environmental assessment studies Before they can begin mining opera tions they must obtain government approval of their environmental as sessments In 2012 Clif fs and Noront both com pleted their feasibility studies and wards completing their environmen tal assessment studies T o complete their environmental assessment re ports Clif fs and Noront must engage the active participation of the First Nation communities in the area of the proposed mining operation com