Like joining a neighbourhood, says Boor [Cliffs – Sudbury ferrochrome facility] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 9, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Bill Boor felt as if he were among friends Tuesday at a sold-out luncheon of 330 people organized by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce. For Cliffs Natural Resources’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, it was like coming home in a sense.

That’s how Boor felt May 9 after delivering the news to investors in Toronto that Cliffs had selected the former Moose Mountain Mine site north of Capreol for its $1.8-billion ferrochrome processing plant.

“We made a lot more people unhappy that day than we made happy,” Boor told the lunch-time crowd. It was a long day, but Boor and other company officials opted to come to Sudbury for a late-afternoon reception with the city’s movers and shakers.

“It was the best thing we ever decided,” Boor told the chamber crowd. “It honestly felt like when you have a very long day at work and you go home.”

In Sudbury this week, Boor met with Mayor Matichuk, Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas and Nickel Belt New Democrat MP Claude Gravelle. All three attended the luncheon, sitting at the same table as Boor.

Boor’s talk was billed as “Building a World-Class Chrome Business.” In it, he presented an overview and update of the chromite mine at McFaulds Lake in Northwestern Ontario and of the ferrochrome processing facility planned near Capreol.

Cleveland-based Cliffs has a 165-year history of launching projects with the intent to stay. “It’s like joining a neighbourhood,” said Boor.

That neighbourhood happens to have a “hole” in the supply of chromite and ferrochrome.

There are no chromite mines or ferrochrome production facilities in North America, but there are stainless steel producers now buying ferrochrome from South Africa.

Cliffs is looking to fill that gap.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Sudbury Star website: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2012/11/09/like-joining-a-neighbourhood-says-boor