Sudbury to get first crack at Ring of Fire nickel

Four northern Ontario cities —  Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay —  are in the running to be home to a ferrochrome smelter which will process chromite from the Ring of Fire mineral deposit.

But Noront Resources Ltd. CEO Alan Coutts says the first minerals out of the ground will be nickel concentrate, to be processed in Sudbury.

• Noront Resources to make decision on Ring of Fire smelter by end of year
• Ontario pledges 'support' for year-round road access to 3 remote First Nations

Now that the provincial government has committed to funding the road infrastructure to the Ring of Fire, Coutts told CBC's Morning North that his company plans to develop a mine at its Eagle's Nest project first. The site — 530 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay —  is rich in high-grade nickel, copper, platinum and palladium.

"The reason we selected that to be the first mine is because there is already existing smelting capacities for those minerals in Sudbury," Coutts said.

• Thunder Bay will benefit from promised Ring of Fire road, says Noront Resources president

Plenty of benefits to go around

But bringing the first batch of ore to Sudbury doesn't necessarily mean it will be given preferential treatment when the time comes to decide the location of the ferrochrome smelter, said Bruce Jago, director of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University.

"Relationships do get built and positive relationships, they bode well for the future," Jago said. "But there's a railroad track to all four candidates for chromite smelters."

Jago said Sudburians shouldn't be disappointed if Noront decides to put the smelter in another location. The Ring of Fire project stands to benefit the entire northern part of the province.

"There's lots of benefit," Jago said. "[Noront Resources] has to build a mine, a processing facility, and roads. All of this is good for Ontario."

"There are goods and services utilized to build it," he added. "And we know Sudbury is the capital in Ontario of mining supply and services."

Indigenous support key to Ring of Fire

One of the encouraging elements to the province's decision to start the project are the communities involved with the deposit. Jago said there's obviously been a "bit of conversation" with Indigenous communities who stand to benefit from the project.

"That demonstrates that Indigenous negotiations have gone well, and it's nice that it has happened," Jago said.

Noront is expected to decide the location of its ferrochrome smelter by the end of this year.