March 1, 2011 – Republic of Mining

The Fable of the Ropes: Applied to Northern Ontario – by David Robinson

March 1, 2011

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Dave Robinson is an economist with the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University. drobinson@laurentian.ca His column was published in the February, 2011 issue.

Once upon a time there was a vast, resource-rich region – kind of like Northern Ontario. It was stuck in an old-fashioned development trap. You know, producing raw materials for other regions, with all the decisions being made outside the region, and almost all the revenue from selling off resources going outside the region.

One man was officially in charge of pulling the region out of that development swamp. He was in charge of all the forests and all the minerals. The Grand Minister of Mines and Forests struggled heroically to get the region moving. But nothing happened.

Unfortunately, the Grand Minister was relying on an outdated model of development. He was pinning his hopes on the Ring of Fire and on doing what the forestry companies want. After flirting with change, he backed away from increasing community control and putting wood in the hands of small local producers. It looked like he’d been hog-tied by the big companies.

[Ring of Fire] Chromite discovery sparks excitement – by Norm Tollinsky (June, 2009)

March 1, 2011

Norm Tollinsky is editor of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. This article is from the June, 2009 issue.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

“This greenstone belt, this Ring of Fire crescent, is about the same land area of the Abitibi
Greenstone Belt, which includes Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Noranda and Val d’Or. It comprises a substantial part of the mining wealth of Canada, and we have a sister to it.”
(Frank Smeenk, President, KWG Resources – June, 2009)

A massive chromite deposit in the James Bay Lowlands will extend the development frontier of Ontario from Timmins to the Attawapiskat River and result in billions of dollars of spending on new mines, processing facilities and infrastructure, according to senior executives of several junior mining companies.

The deposit, touted as one of the largest discoveries of chromite in the world and the only one in North America, has already attracted the attention of one major mining company and others may follow.

Cliffs Natural Resources, the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America, a major supplier of direct-shipping lump and fines iron ore out of Australia and a significant producer of metallurgical coal, has invested U.S. $3.5 million in a private placement for 19.9 per cent of KWG Resources Inc., one of five junior mining companies with property along the 12 to 14-kilometre strike length of the deposit.

Hydro rates killing jobs – by Wayne Snider, The Daily Press (February 28, 2011)

March 1, 2011

Wayne Snider is the city editor for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

“An independent Northern Ontario electricity authority would allow us to create
jobs in Northern Ontario, contribute to the economy of the North and at the end
of the day, it would be good for all of Ontario.” (Former NDP leader Howard Hampton)

OPINION: Northern municipal leaders seek provincial solution to industrial sized problem

Northern Ontario municipal representatives will deliver their wish list to the leaders of the three mainstream political parties this week during the Ontario Good Roads Convention.

It would be shocking if hydro rates were not on that list, given the fact that rising costs of the utility have played a major role in gutting industry across the North.

Hydro costs were one of the key contributors leading Xstrata Copper to close its smelting operations at the Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site. Instead, ore concentrate is now shipped to Quebec, where electricity is much cheaper. (With the move, the province also lost one of its largest customers in terms of power sales.)

Saw and paper mills have also been hit hard by soaring hydro costs. In Iroquois Falls, there is an atmosphere of dread created by the pending sale of AbitibiBowater’s hydro electric dams. The fear being that once the cheap source of power dries up, the company will walk away from the community.

One of the major players in the Ring of Fire project, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., has publicly stated that hydro costs in Ontario are too prohibitive to make processing of the ore in-province attractive.