Firm reveals more detail on smelter plan

Amidst all the buzz and euphoria that came out of the big Longlac meeting this week that sketched out in detail Cliffs Natural Resources’ plans to develop its Ring of Fire chromite project, a native chief clung to “hope” that his band will be among its beneficiaries.
The project’s smelter “is going to go in Greenstone — it has to,” Aroland First Nation Chief Sonny Gagnon declared Friday.
“At least, these are my hopes and dreams.”
Although Cleveland-based Cliffs sent two of its most senior officials Thursday to Longlac’s jam-packed meeting, Gagnon said he is still waiting for anyone from the company to talk to him and his council.
“We haven’t talked to Cliffs, we haven’t been consulted,” said Gagnon.
In its presentation Thursday, Cliffs said “it recognizes First Nations’ unique connection to the land, and hopes to gain the trust and respect of community members by encouraging them to take a meaningful role throughout the environmental assessment.”
“First Nations traditional knowledge of the land will be useful when developing key project components,” the company continued.
Though Aroland views itself as the best location for a facility to process the chromite to be mined at the Ring of Fire site 260 kilometres north, Cliffs continues to see a brown field on the outskirts of Sudbury as its “base-case” site for a smelter.
Cliffs was to have met this week with officials at Wahnapitae First Nation, the Sudbury-area band whose traditional territory contains the proposed smelter location.
At Thursday’s Longlac meeting, Cliffs released a map showing a proposed “transload station,” to be located in the Nakina-Aroland area, where ore would be transferred from 70-tonne trucks to CN Rail cars bound for Sudbury.
A proposed “all-weather road,” most likely an extension of the existing Road 643, would connect the mine site to the Nakina-Aroland transfer station.
The road system alone could account for up to 300 jobs of the total 1,300 being forecast by Cliffs for its Ring of Fire project.

Have a great weekend.

mynot