Looking at Mr. Steiner’s CV…
Mr. Steiner, an Ontario lawyer and businessman, was
- the Chief of Staff to Canada's Minister of Indian Affairs & Northern Development earlier in his career
Competence and connections in the Northern and Indigenous worlds, and Federal government
- participated in the creation of the Territory of Nunavut and the Yukon comprehensive land claims & self-government settlement.
See above
- He is currently the Chair of the Canada-Saudi Business Council
Connections to high level Saudi business interests
- previously a founding director and Chair of the Canada-UAE Business Council.
Connections to high level Emirates business interests – See below for potential significance
Middle Eastern investment in the mining sector has been substantial recently.
- Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, invested some US$2.5 billion to acquire 10% of Vale S.A. ("Vale") this past April.
- Vale had previously acquired all of Canada's Inco in 2006.
Saudis have 10% of Vale, and by extension their Inco Ops
- Last May, UAE's AD Ports Group announced signing an MOU with Vale for the supply of an initial 50 million tons of iron for annual delivery to the AD Ports Mega Hub in Abu Dhabi, for the supply of low carbon steelmaking.
This is a massive off-take of ore from Vale and using low-cost UAE NatGas, produces high value-added Hot-Briquetted Iron via the Direct Reduction process. Direct Reduction using NatGas… what a coincidence...
- The Ring of Fire's chrome discoveries may harbor the potential to deliver in future complimentary chrome for low carbon stainless-steelmaking as additional carbon reductions may be derived in stainless-steelmaking by utilizing the direct reduction method developed and patented by KWG.
If… UAE offtakes (5-10 million tonnes annually, for argument’s sake) high quality chrome ore from the Ring of Fire, they could direct reduce it with their low cost NatGas under licence from KWG and have a pre-stainless melt product ready to be blended with a small amount of Nickel to create low-cost Stainless Steel. A very high Value-add for the Emirates to sell worldwide.