The Ring of Fire is the name given to a massive planned chromite mining and smelting development project in the mineral-rich James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario. The Ring of Fire development would impact nine First Nations, and potential developers are required to negotiate an Impact Benefit Agreement with these communities prior to development. The region is centred on McFaulds Lake, near the Attawapiskat River in Kenora District, approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi) northeast of Thunder Bay, about 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of Webequie, and due north of Marten Falls and Ogoki Post, which is near/on the (Albany River) west of James Bay.
Contents
- Ring of Fire as Ontarios Oil Sands
- Access
- Environmental assessments
- Government of Canada
- Action plan for supporting community participation in the Ring of Fire
- Government of Ontario
- Ring of Fire Secretariat Resource revenue sharing with First Nations
- Development proposals
- First Nations and the Ring of Fire
- Royalties
- References
The Ring of Fire was named when the first significant mineral finds were made in the region, by Richard Nemis, after Johnny Cash's famous country and western ballad. Nemis, the founder and president of Noront Resources, was a lifelong fan of the singer. By the fall of 2011, the Ring of Fire was considered "one of the largest potential mineral reserves in Ontario" with "more than 35 junior and intermediate mining and exploration companies covering an area of approximately "1.5 million hectares." Although the Ring of Fire crescent covers 5,000 square kilometres (approximately 1,930 square miles), most discoveries made by 2012 were within a small, 20 kilometres (12 mi) long strip. Ontario's Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle called the region "home to one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in Ontario in more than a century." Tony Clement, Canada's Treasury Board President and the FedNor minister responsible for the Ring of Fire, claimed it will be the economic equivalent of the Athabasca oil sands, with a potential of generating $120 billion. Clement says the Ring of Fire represents a "once-in-a-life opportunity to create jobs and generate growth and long-term prosperity for northern Ontario and the nation." Challenges facing the development of the Ring of Fire mineral include lack of access to the remote region, infrastructure deficits such as roads, railway, electricity and broadband, First Nations land rights, and environmental issues in the James Bay Lowlands, the "third largest wetland in the world"." Clement was looking to business, not the federal government, to invest "in power and transportation infrastructure to develop the deposit."
Ring of Fire as Ontario's Oil Sands
In May 2012, Cliffs Natural Resources announced a "$3.3-billion investment to build a chromite mine, transportation corridor and processing facility in northern Ontario's Ring of Fire that would lead to a new generation of prosperity in the north, with thousands of jobs and new infrastructure." Natural Resources minister Michael Gravelle announced that the smelter would be in Sudbury, Ontario.
On 26 April 2013, Tony Clement called the Ring of Fire the Oil Sands of Ontario. On 13 June 2013, Cliffs announced it would put its $3.3-billion project on hold pending results of negotiations between First Nations and Queen's Park.
Tony Clement said that the Ring of Fire would bring "about a hundred years of mining activity that will spin-off jobs and economic activity for generations."
Access
In February 2013, KWG Resources, a Toronto-based junior miner, released the report it commissioned by the engineering firm Tetra Tech regarding the viability of building a railroad, instead of a road, to access chromite in the Ring of Fire. KWG's 100 percent owned subsidiary, Canada Chrome Corporation, "staked a 330-kilometre-long string of mining claims" creating a transportation corridor linking Cliffs/KWG's Big Daddy chromite deposit to CN Rail (CN) near Nakina, Ontario. According to KWG, their subsidiary, Canada Chrome Corporation "conducted a $15 million surveying and soil testing program for the engineering and construction of a railroad to the Ring of Fire from Exton, Ontario." Moe Lavigne, VP of KWG Resources, a former Ontario Geological Survey geologist, hopes the federal government will consider Tetra Tech's findings. Cliffs Natural Resources is seeking an easement through Ontario's Mining and Landings Commissioner on the KWG corridor to build their access road.
Environmental assessments
In 2011, environmental assessments by the Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments began for Cliffs Natural Resources' proposed Black Thor Project and Noront Resources’s Eagles Nest Project, with both companies volunteering "to make their projects subject to an environmental assessment under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act (EAA) and are completing environmental assessments under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA).
Government of Canada
On 12 November 2012, Tony Clement was appointed as the lead federal minister on the Ring of Fire and co-chair, with Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Bernard Valcourt, of the Federal Steering Committee (FCS), which represents 15 federal departments. Clement invited Ontario Natural Resources minister Michael Gravelle "to collaborate on projects, community visits, information-sharing, and to hold joint meetings." Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) led other federal departments and FedNor in the development of Action Plan for Supporting Community Participation in the Ring of Fire to help "position First Nations to benefit from proposed mining projects."
The Federal Action Plan's whole-of-government approach includes the creation of a one-stop shop, where working group leads, from existing federal working groups in the labour market, infrastructure, community health and well-being, business development and environment form the single point of contact with local First Nations, industry and the province of Ontario. A multi-ministry meeting of federal senior officials had already been organized in April 2012.
Greg Rickford is the MP for the riding of Kenora, where the Ring of Fire is located, and the Minister of State for FedNor.
Action plan for supporting community participation in the Ring of Fire
February 2013 briefing notes for Clement warned that the Matawa First Nation communities were among the "most socio-economically challenged in Ontario, impacting their ability to meaningfully participate in large complex projects." Most of the "working age population in the Matawa First Nation communities have not completed high school." Three of the nine local Matawa First Nations were "under financial intervention (co-management)." Matawa First Nations lack "exposure to a development of this magnitude combined with low educational attainment and other factors suggests that the communities do not currently have the capacity to address the various issues related to the Ring of Fire."
The Action Plan noted that First Nations were interested in potential legacy impacts of Ring of Fire infrastructure, such as all-weather roads, links to the power grid and high-speed broadband Internet. Industry Canada's Broadband Canada was already laying 2,300 kilometers of fibre optic cable to 26 First Nations across the Far North, including the Ring of Fire.
Government of Ontario
In April 2010 the government of Ontario announced that it would open a large chromite deposit in the area to development.
Ring of Fire Secretariat: Resource revenue sharing with First Nations
In 2011, Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development and Mines created the Ring of Fire Secretariat, with Christine Kaszyckias as its coordinator, to develop "the chromite and other deposits in the Ring of Fire as quickly as possible and with due regard to environmental impacts and the needs of the Aboriginal communities within the region." It outlined strategies regarding First Nations partnerships, including resource revenue sharing, regional infrastructure planning, long-term environmental monitoring, community-based capacity funding, relationship agreements, land use planning, employment and income assistance, skills development, training and job creation, transportation and community infrastructure, and socio-economic and community development in response to concerns by industry and First Nations communities.
On May 8, 2012, Premier Dalton McGuinty wrote Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on the eve of Cliffs Natural Resources' announcement of the location of its ferrochrome processing facility, asking for federal government assistance "to engage First Nations in the region to help those communities benefit from this historic opportunity." Along with federal funds to improve First Nations education on reserves and for drug treatment programs, McGuinty asked for "a tripartite process."
Development proposals
By 2012, there were 30,000 claims, 35 prospecting companies, and significant discoveries of chromium, copper, zinc, nickel, platinum, vanadium and gold; there were only two major development proposals, Noront Resources's Eagle's Nest Project and Cliffs Natural Resources. KWG Resources entered into a joint venture agreement with Bold Ventures (TSX:BOL) on its $5 million Koper Lake Project. In February 2013, Richard Nemis, CEO of Bold Ventures, obtained a Marten Falls First Nation Land Use Permit to operate the camp using "three diamond drills provided by Cyr International Drilling and Orbit Garant Drilling" to carry out approximately 6,000 metres (20,000 ft) of diamond drilling on nickel‐copper and chromite targets. Operator Bold Ventures was required to cease drilling activities from March 31, 2012, until April 13, 2013, to ensure the First Nations' permit was granted under the Mining Act, and a permit issued by a Director of Exploration from the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines was obtained. Probe Mines owned the entire Victory Project, which consists of "452 claims totaling 7,232 hectares and covers the interpreted southeast extension of the McFauld's Lake" and the Tamarack Project which "comprises 360 claims covering over 5,700 hectares of the McFauld's Lake in the Ring of Fire.
First Nations and the Ring of Fire
Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 forces the two companies to negotiate an impact benefit agreement with the nine First Nations that would "include certain assurances, including guarantees that a certain number of jobs will go to First Nations workers." The three First Nations most profoundly impacted by the two projects are Marten Falls First Nation, Webequie First Nation and Neskantaga First Nation. Others on the edge of the Ring of Fire include Constance Lake First Nation (Chief Roger Wesley), Nibinamik First Nation, Aroland First Nation, Long Lake 58 First Nation, Ginoogaming First Nation, Eabametoong First Nation, Mishkeegogamang First Nation, and Constance Lake First Nation.
In May 2011, Matawa Chiefs and their communities called for a Joint Environmental Assessment (EA) Review Panel.
On October 13, 2011, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) proceeded with a Comprehensive Study Environmental Assessment that favours the mining industry without First Nations participation.
On October 20, 2011, Matawa First Nations removed its support for the Ring of Fire development unless the federal government agreed to a joint review panel Environmental Assessment process that would allow First Nations communities in the area to have a voice in the assessment."
On June 12, 2012, Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci signed an agreement that "commits Ontario to providing social, community and economic development supports for Webequie to help facilitate the community’s involvement in the Ring of Fire." They "will work together on regional environmental monitoring and regional infrastructure planning."
On February 4, 2013, Tony Clement acknowledged that the nine first First Nations on and off-reserve in the Ring of Fire area are some of the "most socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in all of Canada."
In an interview with CBC on 27 June 2013, Les Louttit, the deputy grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the group that represents the nine First Nations, argued that serious problems have been neglected for decades. Two to three years is not enough time for skills training to train locals for construction jobs, for example. Louttit noted the gap in First Nations high school and post-secondary education that has existed for many years. Anja Jeffrey, director of the Centre for the North at the Conference Board of Canada, stressed traditional hunting as one of the key issues.
Bob Rae was appointed as chief negotiator to represent the nine different native governments—Marten Falls First Nation, Webequie First Nation, Neskantaga First Nation, Nibinamik First Nation, Aroland First Nation, Long Lake 58 First Nation, Ginoogaming First Nation, Eabametoong First Nation, Mishkeegogamang First Nation, and Constance Lake First Nation for the Matawa First Nations—in talks with the Ontario government about the opening of First Nations lands to the Ring of Fire development. Noront’s Eagle's Nest copper and nickel mine and the Black Thor chromite mine of Cliffs Natural Resources would generate wealth and royalties for Ontario, but the mines are in a remote region. They will "require significant development to make them viable." "[D]evelopment that will have a profound effect on the local native communities, five of which are not yet accessible by road."
In 2015, APTN partnered with Mushkeg Media (ROF) Inc. and ABF Ring of Fire Inc. to release a six-part Ring of Fire TV series & digital media project to help be a source of knowledge and information about the ROF mining development. The digital media project can be accessed at http://ringoffiretv.ca/ and streaming of the episodes can be found at http://ringoffiretv.ca/aptn-2/
Royalties
By 2013-2014 royalties collected from De Beers Victor Diamond Mine amounted to $226. At that time De Beers was continuing to pay off its "$1 billion investment to build the mine and from now until it closes, the company expects to pay tens of millions of dollars in royalties."