http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
OTTAWA – Just as the federal government strives to speed up environmental reviews of major mining and energy projects, approvals for the giant Ring of Fire proposal in northern Ontario are getting increasingly tangled.
On Monday, a key environmental group asked for provincial government mediation on how Cliffs Natural Resources plans to develop a giant chromite deposit in the fragile muskeg of the James Bay lowlands.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society says Cleveland-based Cliffs is dramatically changing its plans for a mine without properly consulting with the public.
“Several major alterations have been incorporated at the last minute and without the benefit of public scrutiny,” the Wildlands League chapter of CPAWS says in a letter to Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley.
The letter says Cliffs is backing away from a long-term plan to do a combination of open-pit mining and underground mining, opting to stick with only open pit.
It also notes Cliffs is considering only a single route — a north-south road that would be heavily subsidized — to transport chromite ore out of the area, instead of considering other ways such, as an east-west corridor that could link First Nations to much-needed infrastructure.