Much of Ontario’s future prosperity depends upon the success of developing the Ring of Fire, but many people in the province don’t know it.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce is conducting a study to measure the economic benefit of mining the ring’s rich chromite deposits and to raise awareness outside the North about their tremendous potential.
In fact, some observers believe the Ring of Fire could be worth as much as $50 billion to Ontario and be mined for as long as a century.
In Sudbury, Cliffs Natural Resources has plans to open a chromite mine in the Ring of Fire area and ship the ore to a plant in Capreol for processing, creating up to 500 jobs. However, those plans are on hold as the company sorts through a number of political, infrastructure and environmental issues.
To get people talking about the Ring of Fire, the Ontario chamber, in conjunction with the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, will hold a by-invitation-only round table in the city Oct. 9.
There it will seek business and community leaders “prescriptions” for how to move the project forward, says the senior policy adviser for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.
Many Ontarians, particularly those in the south, have never heard of the Ring of Fire, said Liam McGuinty. The study will help change that.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce is “right on board with the most proper and appropriate development” of the area, said McGuinty, and it wants to move that forward.
The chromite deposits in the ring, about 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, were discovered in 2007, but bringing them into production has been a long and complicated process.
A similar round table held in Thunder Bay this week drew 22 people, all of those invited to participate in the forum.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce presented its initial findings to the Thunder Bay group — including its take on the economic benefits and barriers standing in the way of development — and sought answers to a number of questions.
The group asked community leaders about the economic benefits of the Ring of Fire, apart from the mining sector, and what they see as barriers to development.
Some of those barriers include infrastructure, “environmental considerations,” skills training and inclusion of First Nations in consultation and job creation, said McGuinty.
The first goal of the Ontario chamber is to demonstrate how big an opportunity the Ring of Fire presents to Ontario.
The second is to “mobilize some public support for the development of the Ring of Fire in the near term,” said McGuinty.
“It’s such a complicated issue all around,” said McGuity about developing the area for mining. “We throw those (issues) on the table and we say, ‘What are your prescriptions for getting this thing moving? What are your short-term and medium- term action items that need to get done, and then just as importantly, what’s your role in pushing those forward?’” he asked.
The round tables will “push the dialogue forward a little bit. We’re not going to change the world ... but it’s one more little step in the right direction,” said McGuinty.
The Ontario chamber will add information from the round tables to the data it has collected, and will release it in an economic impact study late this year or early in the new year.
The provincial body isn’t getting involved in discussions about where facilities related to mining the Ring of Fire should be located, but rather to maximize the benefits and keep wealth generated from chromite mining in the province.
Typically, most mining operations have 25% “leakage” when it comes to losing financial benefits to jurisdictions outside of Ontario.
The mood at the Thunder Bay round table held this week was co-operative. “It was very much, ‘Look, we’re all in this together, we all stand to benefit one way or another, either in terms of overall economic benefit to the province or specific companies, so let’s make sure we’re on the same page,’” said McGuinty.
He was reluctant to reveal how ignorant much of Ontario is about the potential of the Ring of Fire, “but, I can tell you this. Awareness ... is significantly higher in the North than the south; not only of what the economic potential is, but of what the Ring of Fire itself is.”
The Ring of Fire will be on the agenda at an Ontario summit, the 10th annual, the OCC will hold in Niagara-on-the-Lake from Nov. 6-8. In all, 250 people – including the premier, opposition leaders and cabinet – will attend.
One of the focuses will be on mining, “but specifically the Ring of Fire and how do we move it forward,” said McGuinty.
A similar roundtable will be held in Timmins on Oct. 10, hosted by that city’s chamber of commerce.
carol.mulligan@sunmedia.ca
Twitter @Carol_Mulligan