TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Natural Resources Canada minister Joe Oliver on Tuesday continued his crusade to cut down on environmental approval timelines for major projects, to encourage the potential C$92-billion in mining investment the government sees over the next ten years.

Oliver made specific mention of the chromite and nickel projects underway in Ontario’s Ring of Fire district, saying he hoped Cliffs Natural Resources’ Black Thor deposit and Noront Resources’ Eagle’s Nest project make their way through the regulatory processes without hitches.

Cleveland-based Cliffs said earlier this month that it could cost nearly $1-billion to build a mine and a concentrator at Black Thor, where it is carrying out a prefeasibility study, to produce one-million tons of export chromite ore concentrate and 600 000 t of ferrochrome.

The company is also studying the viability of building a $1.8-billion ferrochrome plant in Ontario.

The Black Thor mine is scheduled to start producing in 2015, with the prefeasibility set for completion in the first half of 2012.

Noront, listed on the TSX announced a prefeasibility study for Eagle’s Nest last year that outlined a $734-million capital investment for a one-million-ton-a-year nickel-copper and platinum group metals mine.

Oliver pointed out that both projects were undergoing environmental assessment.

“It is my hope that these projects will pass through our federal and provincial regulatory systems and processes that are needed, and will do so smoothly,” he said.

Oliver commented that the Ring of Fire, located in Northern Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands, was attracting significant investment, and could put Canada on the map for chromite production, currently dominated by South Africa, Kazakhstan and India.

“It could also replenish Canada’s dwindling reserves of nickel and copper,” he said.

In a speech to a Canadian Mining Innovation Council event in Toronto, Oliver repeated his calls for a faster environmental review process in the country, comparing the two years it took for Australia to green-light BHP Billiton’s anticipated $20-billion expansion at its Olympic Dam mine to the six years Canada took to approve Total's $9-billion Joslyn North oil sands project.

“We can’t afford to give our competitors that kind of a head start,” he said.

Oliver earlier this month wrote an open letter to Canadians decrying the country’s “broken” regulatory system that was at risk of being hijacked by “environmental and other radical groups”.

Speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s speech, he said the government was yet to decide what would be a reasonable or competitive environmental review timeframe, but said it would clearly be less than the nine years it took to go through the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline or the six years it took for Jocelyn North”.

He also couldn’t be drawn on how long the government could take to change the legislation or regulations, saying it would be for parliament to decide.

“It’s a priority for the government, it’s a matter of urgency and we’re going to get along with it,” Oliver said.

“The ultimate goal is simple: one project, one review, in a clearly defined time period.”