Noront Resources Ltd. Working to Get the Ring of Fire Moving
THUNDER BAY – Noront Resources Limited President and CEO Al Coutts is looking to get mining. The Noront President says that getting moving on the Ring of Fire is important for Ontario.
Coutts shares in an interview with NetNewsLedger, what is key is for Ontario to move forward on the permitting process, while it is working on the Regulatory Framework Agreement.
The Ring of Fire chromite discovery in Northwestern Ontario offers opportunity for the region. “Getting the Ring of Fire right,” has been the message from the province of Ontario and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle.
Often it is the quiet player who is the one to watch. In the Ring of Fire, Noront Resources has been quietly doing things right. The company has built solid relationships with communities in the Ring of Fire, and is working to help train and then hire young people through the Ring of Fire Aboriginal Training Alliance (RoFATA) with Matawa communities.
Noront Resource is one of the so-called junior mining companies working in Northwestern Ontario. The company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol NOT.
The company is working toward getting their prospects right in the Ring of Fire.
So while many players in the marketplace are focused solely on the chromite potential in the Ring of Fire, Noront Resources is also working on the nickel resources in the area.
Ring of Fire Needs Speedy Action
![Noreen Resources Limited President and CEO Al Coutts in the NetNewsLedger Newsroom](https://www.netnewsledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Noront-Resources-Al-Coutts-300x165.jpg)
Action on the Ring of Fire has been more in the form of quiet behind the scenes work from the Ontario Government, the Minister has announced the creation of the Ring of Fire Development Corporation, and the province has budgeted $1 billion dollars toward the project. Ontario is seeking support from the federal government in matching that $1 billion dollars.
Over the course of 2014, Cliffs Natural Resources walked away from their investment in the project. The company executives are maintaining that in their view, the chromite project is unlikely to happen.
In the Globe and Mail recently: “I’m walking away from Canada big time – Canada for Cliffs has not been a good thing,” Lourenco Goncalves, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in an interview. “All these investments that the company made in Canada after the Wabush mine were a disaster.”
One of the concerns for Ontario is that mining is a fast moving industry. There could be another resource find somewhere else in the world, and the investment dollars, mining companies and jobs would all flow to that project.
Keeping moving in the Ring of Fire is seen as key to moving forward successfully in the project.