Noront Resources

A leading junior miner in the Ring of Fire is tapping into northeastern Ontario expertise to advance its high-grade nickel-copper and chromite deposit in the James Bay region.

Wes Hanson, Noront Resources' president and chief executive officer, laid out his company's impressive development plans for the Far North before a receptive audience of businesspeople and mining suppliers at a Sudbury luncheon, Nov. 26.

The Toronto miner outlined the company's preliminary plans for a massive underground mine and milling complex beneath the swamps of the James Bay Lowlands.

Noront has put together an all-star management and consulting team with representation from North Bay and Sudbury that involves mine-builders Cementation, the environmental and mining engineering firms of Knight-Piesold and Golder Associates, and automated mine expert Greg Baiden.

“We're trying to use as much Northern expertise as we can gather,” said Hanson.

As mineral potential grows for Noront in the Ring, so will opportunities for Sudbury mining supply companies, said Hanson.

McFauld's Lake and the James Bay region are a breadbasket of chromite, nickel, copper, gold, platinum and palladium.

Noront is the largest landholder in the Ring with 120,000 hectares under exploration, centred around its flagship Eagle's Nest deposit, located 300 kilometres west of DeBeers Canada's Victor diamond mine.

As a strictly fly-in, fly-out venture, the boggy terrain is challenging to explore and develop.

“It's not uncommon to see your diamond drilling contractor standing up their waists in water, finishing a hole,” said Hanson.

What has industry and politicians excited is the discovery of chromite. The black mineral, which is processed into ferrochrome, is a key ingredient in the manufacturing of stainless steel. It's the first discovery of its kind in North America and could place Canada as a top-three chromite miner.

But the infrastructure costs and power needed to build and operate a mine will be huge, said Hanson.

“If we're going to produce ferrochrome in Canada, we're going to need lots of power, probably more than is currently available on the grid.”

With China's appetite for chromite expected to double within five years, Hanson hinted that government needs to provide some investment to offset development costs in the Ring.

“It represents an opportunity that shouldn't be missed by the province,” said Hanson, who mentioned Premier Dalton McGuinty's reference to the Ring of Fire in last spring's throne speech.

“Hopefully by saying that, he'll build me a road and get me up there.”

Hanson is equally bullish on their discovery of nickel sulphides. Exploration results have yielded grades as good as anything found at Vale's Voisey's Bay mine.

With chromite ore selling at $150 per tonne and nickel-copper sulphides at $700 per tonne, Noront wants to mine the ore with the highest value.

“Chromite is a nice add-on, but we think nickel-copper sulphide will do all the heavy lifting.”

With no operating mines to produce a steady stream of cash, Noront is focused on minimizing costs and is determined to leave a light environmental footprint on one of the world's largest wetlands.

Compared to the multi-billion dollar open pit and railroad plans of their McFauld's Lake neighbours, Cliffs Natural Resources and KWG Resources, Noront is eyeballing placing the mine, milling and tailings facilities completely underground. There will be no headframe on surface.

According to a preliminary economic assessment, the initial capital investment would be betweem $600 million and $625 million.

“The goal is to build a mine you can walk over and not even know it's there,” said Hanson.

A winter road from Pickle Lake to Webequie will be upgraded to an all-season route. An 80-kilometre transmission corridor will run into the mine site from a power plant at Webequie.

Hanson said a pipeline is far more efficient, less environmentally damaging and cheaper to operate than a railroad.

The miner has put extra effort into building trust with area Aboriginals by forming a First Nations advisory board directed by leaders from across Canada.

The Far North communities suffer employment rates as high as 95 per cent and Noront intends to train and groom them as its future work force.

As part of its social agenda, Noront is focusing on Aboriginal youth and their schooling by sponsoring bursaries for post-secondary education, holding mining career fairs, funding mining-related school trips to Sudbury and creating a community consultation web portal.

“We want to establish a culture of trust between our company and the communities where we work,” said Hanson. “We want to make sure they understand we're not there to destroy the environment. We're not there to take out the mineral wealth and leave them with nothing.

“We're there to engage them as partners and help them realize the benefits that all of us in this room take for granted.”