Page 68 Ring of Fire really worth One thing is keeping those deposits worthless at the moment is a lack of a transportation corridor to help build the mines and transport the ores to market The massive road network in south ern Canada is entirely fnanced by the public in the service of industry why not a road to the Ring of Fire Mungall asked in his Sudbury Star article of January 24 2020 The reason nothing is happening in the Ring of Fire has nothing to do with the value of the deposits Mun gall asserted It is entirely due to the inability of governments at all levels including First Nations provincial and federal to reach consensus on land tenure and development plans It is time for all of these groups to negotiate in good faith and govern ef fectively for their stakeholder s so that the value of the Ring of Fire can be realized while providing access and development opportunities to a mar ginalized region of Ontario and op portunities to improve the lot of the First Nations in the region Clif Resour ces frustrated efort to secur e permission to build a r oad in 2014 Fails Six years ago Clifs Resources was very close to opening up the Ring of Fire by 2014 Back then the access road was to be built privatel y by the mining company Clifs Resource submitted a road design to the Ontar io Mining Commissioner for permis sion to build a road a portion of which would pass through lands claimed by KWG Resources KWG opposed Clifs road plan because it did not of fer sufcient compensation and that it could likely impede its efort to de velop its mining claim But efort bogged down when its route for a north south road was denied be cause the mining commissioner sided with KWG Resources over whose land the road was to traverse After the failu re Clifs Resources got out of the Ring of Fire and sold its holdings to Noront at bar gain basement prices after a shareholder rebellion installed a fscally conservative board of direc tors fuelled by fears of international prices for chromate A shareholder revolt headed by Lau renco Goncalves led Clifs Resources to abandon its dream of extracting chromate from the Ring of Fire Nor ont holds the cards T oday Noront Resources is the lar g est clai m holder in the Ring of Fire but the number of exploration com panies still in the hunt have been re duced Noront is planning to develop its Eagles Nest nickel mine frst fol lowed by chromite mines In May 2019 the company announced Sault Ste Marie will be the future home for a new ferrochrome processing plant Chromite one of the resources found in the Ring of Fire can be processed into ferrochrome a key ingredient in stainless steel Six years after Clifs Resources pulled out there has been some minor progress The individual First Nations have become the proponents for the Ring of Fire Road with each now be ing the proponent of the section cut ting through their traditional lands Electricity r equir ed for Mining and Refning Electricity transmission lines still have to be designed revie wed for their environmental soundness con sultations with First Nations and acquire provincial and federal envi ronmental approval There are three potential routes but no active sign of a proposal that can be submitted for consideration One route would be to extend the First Nations owned Five Nations Ener gy T ransmission line that extends to the now closed Dia mond Mine and could be extended south to the Ring of Fire The second possible line could run north from Ontario Power Generations plant at Long Lac north of Geraldton Ontario and build by Hydro One The Third possibility would be to exten d that is currently being built in Northwestern Ontario eastward to the Ring of Fire Ferr ochr ome Smelter The ferrochrome smelter issue Sault Ste Marie was selected by Noront as the location for its ferrochrome smelt er There was much celebrat ion but recently the number of opponents has galvanized in their opposition to Sault being the location Opponents include the Batchawanna First Nations A group of doctors from Sault Ste Ma rie also sent a letter to the Ford gov ernment warning of health problems caused by emissions from operating ferrochrome smelters For his part Allan Coutts said he expected there would be opposition Nor ont signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ar oland First Nation to advance the planning pr ocess for the development of the Eagle s Nest nickel copper platinumpalladium deposit in the Ring of Fir e northern Ontario Contd from pg 66 Contd on pg 70 Nor ont Resour ces is the largest claim holder in the Ring of Fir e Page 68 Ring of Fire really worth One thing is keeping those deposits worthless at the moment is a lack of a transportation corridor to help build the mines and transport the ores to market The massive road network in south ern Canada is entirely fnanced by the public in the service of industry why not a road to the Ring of Fire Mungall asked in his Sudbury Star article of January 24 2020 The reason nothing is happening in the Ring of Fire has nothing to do with the value of the deposits Mun gall asserted It is entirely due to the inability of governments at all levels including First Nations provincial and federal to reach consensus on land tenure and development plans It is time for all of these groups to negotiate in good faith and govern ef fectively for their stakeholder s so that the value of the Ring of Fire can be realized while providing access and development opportunities to a mar ginalized region of Ontario and op portunities to improve the lot of the First Nations in the region Clif Resour ces frustrated efort to secur e permission to build a r oad in 2014 Fails Six years ago Clifs Resources was very close to opening up the Ring of Fire by 2014 Back then the access road was to be built privatel y by the mining company Clifs Resource submitted a road design to the Ontar io Mining Commissioner for permis sion to build a road a portion of which would pass through lands claimed by KWG Resources KWG opposed Clifs road plan because it did not of fer sufcient compensation and that it could likely impede its efort to de velop its mining claim But efort bogged down when its route for a north south road was denied be cause the mining commissioner sided with KWG Resources over whose land the road was to traverse After the failu re Clifs Resources got out of the Ring of Fire and sold its holdings to Noront at bar gain basement prices after a shareholder rebellion installed a fscally conservative board of direc tors fuelled by fears of international prices for chromate A shareholder revolt headed by Lau renco Goncalves led Clifs Resources to abandon its dream of extracting chromate from the Ring of Fire Nor ont holds the cards T oday Noront Resources is the lar g est clai m holder in the Ring of Fire but the number of exploration com panies still in the hunt have been re duced Noront is planning to develop its Eagles Nest nickel mine frst fol lowed by chromite mines In May 2019 the company announced Sault Ste Marie will be the future home for a new ferrochrome processing plant Chromite one of the resources found in the Ring of Fire can be processed into ferrochrome a key ingredient in stainless steel Six years after Clifs Resources pulled out there has been some minor progress The individual First Nations have become the proponents for the Ring of Fire Road with each now be ing the proponent of the section cut ting through their traditional lands Electricity r equir ed for Mining and Refning Electricity transmission lines still have to be designed revie wed for their environmental soundness con sultations with First Nations and acquire provincial and federal envi ronmental approval There are three potential routes but no active sign of a proposal that can be submitted for consideration One route would be to extend the First Nations owned Five Nations Ener gy T ransmission line that extends to the now closed Dia mond Mine and could be extended south to the Ring of Fire The second possible line could run north from Ontario Power Generations plant at Long Lac north of Geraldton Ontario and build by Hydro One The Third possibility would be to exten d that is currently being built in Northwestern Ontario eastward to the Ring of Fire Ferr ochr ome Smelter The ferrochrome smelter issue Sault Ste Marie was selected by Noront as the location for its ferrochrome smelt er There was much celebrat ion but recently the number of opponents has galvanized in their opposition to Sault being the location Opponents include the Batchawanna First Nations A group of doctors from Sault Ste Ma rie also sent a letter to the Ford gov ernment warning of health problems caused by emissions from operating ferrochrome smelters For his part Allan Coutts said he expected there would be opposition Nor ont signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ar oland First Nation to advance the planning pr ocess for the development of the Eagle s Nest nickel copper platinumpalladium deposit in the Ring of Fir e northern Ontario Contd from pg 66 Contd on pg 70 Nor ont Resour ces is the largest claim holder in the Ring of Fir e