March 2, 2011 – Republic of Mining

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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca and this article is from the March, 2011 issue.

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

Power Play

Cliffs Natural Resources is forcing the McGuinty government’s hand on the pricey issue of power in Ontario.

The Cleveland-based iron ore and coal miner has put the ball squarely in the provincial government’s court by agreeing to place a ferrochrome refinery in Ontario only if Queen’s Park comes to terms on an acceptable power rate.

A much-anticipated project description of Cliffs’ Chromite project in the James Bay Ring of Fire was released Feb. 4 naming Sudbury as the front-runner to host the ore processing.

Cliffs’ president of ferroalloy Bill Boor said, although the Sudbury suburb of Capreol is the most “technically feasible” site for the ferrochrome processing, there is no place in Ontario that makes economic sense with the price of power at its current provincial rates.

“The availability of a large, reliable and cost-competitive supply of electricity is a key consideration in locating the appropriate site of the ferrochrome production facility,” said Boor in a conference call with reporters.

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 March, 2011 issue.

The straw that breaks the camel’s back is always a surprise. It is always a surprise when the worm turns.

It was a surprise when a popular insurrection began in Egypt, even though we all knew that change had to come some day. It is not a surprise that Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle has backed away from reform in the forest sector.

It is always hard figure out when the camel’s back is going to break or when the worm will turn. A whole new science has developed to help us think about sudden changes in eco-systems and politics. The science of change isn’t very encouraging when we apply it to Northern Ontario.

Resiliency theory is a branch of “dynamic systems analysis.” It is full of simple ideas dressed up for school. There are wonderfully weird terms like “state attractors,” “catastrophe folds,” and “metastable states,” “torus destruction” and “homoclinic bifurcations”.

Will Cliffs force Ontario to deliver a Northern industry power rate? – by Ian Ross

Why Northern Ontario doesn’t change? – by David Robinson