ONTARIO\ RING OF FIRE
Rail corridor will lead to power grid

Five remote First Nations currently relying on diesel-powered generators could be connected to the provincial power grid if an electrified rail corridor is installed to haul ore out of Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire mineral belt.

Project proponent KWG Resources said this week that connecting the Marten Falls, Webequie, Eabematoong, Neskantaga and Nibinamik communities to the Ontario power grid, along with related optical fiber networks, “would eliminate diesel-generation except in outage emergencies.”

The costs of the “electrification plan” have been pegged at $960 million for the main corridor, and $788 million for infrastructure required to connect the First Nations to the grid.

Toronto-based KWG said in a news release that $1.5 billion toward the capital costs could come from government sources.

The specialized, 330-kllometre rail line for hauling ore would cost an additional US$657 million, the company said in an earlier news release.

KWG has long argued that hauling chromite, nickel and other Ring of Fire metals by rail would be cheaper in the long run, and more environmentally-friendly, than the use of diesel-powered trucks.

Still, proposals for all-weather access roads into the Ring of Fire are currently being subject to environmental reviews overseen by Webequie and Marten Falls.

Timelines for approvals and construction of both the rail and road proposals have yet to be set.

KWG controls the Black Horse chromite deposit located in the Ring of Fire, about 550 kilometres north-east of Thunder Bay. Chromite is a main ingredient in stainless steel.

Last month, Australia’s Wyloo Metals won a bidding war for control of Noront Resources, which also has substantial chromite and nickel deposits in the remote mineral belt.

Carl Clutchey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal