http://www.timminspress.com/2018/07/17/mayor-optimistic-after-timmins-makes-noront-shortlist

Ring of Fire chromite deposits in the James Bay lowlands. (supplied by Noront Resources)

TIMMINS - Timmins Mayor Steve Black said he is confident and optimistic that Timmins is still offering the best possible solution for Noront Resources Inc. in its bid to find a new ferrochrome processing facility.

It was only Friday that Noront revealed that Timmins was one of two communities that made the new shortlist for consideration for a new facility.

Timmins had been one of four Northern Ontario cities in the running as a possible site for Noront’s future plans. Noront is the company with the largest area of active mining claims in the Ring of Fire area, which is touted to have $50-billion worth of chromite, nickel and other valuable minerals.

While the mining prospect is still a few years away from development, Noront has been actively seeking a Northern Ontario community where a ferrochrome facility could be located. Timmins, Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie were all being considered.

Noront just announced that Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie are still being considered, while Thunder Bay and Sudbury were dropped from the search.

Mayor Black, who was out of town last week when the news was announced, said Monday he was more than pleased with the work put forward in the Timmins submission.

“Thank you to everyone who worked with us to prepare the proposal,” he said, crediting the Timmins Economic Development Corporation, Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, “Porcupine Engineering, Glencore and all the partners. Thanks to council and those who supported our CIP (community improvement) program which was a significant part of our bid,” Black wrote on his Facebook page.

“This represents an amazing opportunity for the City of Timmins and the possibility of hundreds of jobs for the next century. Thanks again to our amazing team and partners!”

He said Timmins is happy to be included in the advance to the next stage of the evaluation by Noront.

“Going forward it is our understanding they will evaluate the capital costs, operating costs in more detail along with attempting to negotiate a commercial deal with the site owners at both sites,” Black said in an email to The Daily Press.

The Timmins plan is to have a new smelter located at the site for the former Kidd Operations copper smelter, which was closed in 2010. The Met Site is regarded as ideal in that is has all the necessary infrastructure such as hydro, natural gas, a highway link and a rail link as well as being sufficiently remote enough to satisfy future environmental concerns.

“We believe we have a great site with the last permitted smelter that gives great advantages on both the capital cost side as well as permitting side,” Black wrote. “Given we have the last permitted smelter site and it is not near any provincially significant water bodies or environmental concerns we believe we have an ideal site. Being an existing concentrator operation we feel has many advantages going forward.

“In addition, partnering with the ONTC we believe provides a reliable rail partner capable of handling all rail logistics and simplifying that important logistical piece as well as provides a potential anchor client to provide stability to the ONTC which is critical to all Northeastern Ontario as Kidd mine approaches its end of life and role as the anchor tenant of ONTC.

“We believe there is great opportunity for Glencore in this partnership as well to provide community sustainability during what would otherwise be a negative situation with their final closure approaching. They have a chance to reach a deal that will set Timmins up for the next 100 years on their site and avoid some closure costs as well.

“Finally the residents and business community along with communities across the north-east have been extremely supportive and understanding of what this could mean for the future of our community and region. We have been very up front with Noront since the start that we believed the support in Timmins and the region around us would be like no other community and believe that was shown throughout the bid process.

“We remain optimistic that Timmins offers the best partnership, site, and are hopeful a commercial agreement can be reached in the coming months to move this critical project forward,” said Black.