Tuesday February 5, 2013, 4:30am PST
By Dave Forest2 - Exclusive to Resource Investing News3
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Junior mining companies have recently begun trying a number of different strategies5 to deal with increasingly stingy equity and commodities markets, and it appears that moving up the value chain may be the next trick for some producers and developers....
Integrating right from the start
Even some junior companies are considering integrated operations when looking at development options for start-up projects.
Reports22 emerged last month that Noront Resources (TSXV:NOT23) may be considering building a chromite processing plant at its Ring of Fire project in Northern Ontario — presumably to handle ore from the company’s Blackbird chromite deposit.
Local news sources reported that Noront met with First Nations leader Peter Collins to discuss the potential for building a plant on native land in the area. The company’s chief operating officer, Paul Semple, confirmed that a captive process facility is a “longer-term project.”
“We’ve only been talking in conceptual levels,” said Semple. “We’ve gone and looked at that piece of land. We see the land and we see the power plant that’s across the river and it looks like it would all make sense for a facility of that nature.”
As chromite is similar to cobalt in that it produces a number of high-value products — such as ferrochrome — that require specialized processing equipment, it may make sense for companies like Noront to consider their development options carefully in order to maximize value.
