Fort William First Nation's chief says his community is involved in preliminary talks with a mining company to bring a chromite processing plant to this area.

Chief Peter Collins has met with officials with Noront Resources Ltd. to discuss the possibility of a processing plant.

Although the project is still in its early stages, the proposed plant is expected to take up 300-megawatt of power, which would put more strain on the Thunder Bay Generating Station. The project's power needs was brought to the attention of Ontario's Energy Minister Chris Bentley when he met with the Energy Task Force in Thunder Bay last week.

“We’ve been in early discussions with Noront and right now it is still a work in progress,” Collins said Friday.

“If this does come to reality we would like ownership within the plant, and we made no bones about it. Jobs are also part of the discussions."

He said the processing plant that Noront is looking for will be smaller than a third in size to the one that Cliffs Natural Resources is expected to build.

Fort William First Nation had discussed the possibility of hosting that processing plant, but Collins said that was managed as a joint effort with many communities in the district.

The discussions with Noront are exclusively between the company and Fort William First Nation.

“It’s still early and Thunder Bay is our partner and I truly believe the partnership we have is a step forward for all of us,” he said.

“It’s not about us or you it’s about all of us so we can all enjoy the benefits of our lands and the economic benefits that come from it.”

Noront Resources Ltd. Chief Operating Officer, Paul Semple, told tbnewswatch.com Friday that their first priority is the Eagle’s Nest project in the lower James Bay area near Webequie First Nation.

Once the nickel deposits in the Ring of Fire are taken care of, the company will shift focus to other projects.

The likelihood of the project starting up is still a few years away, he added.

“The chromite plant is a longer-term project. We’ve only been talking in conceptual levels. 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.

"We’re not actively pursuing the chromite until we finish with the nickel project. It’s on a port and there a lot of the infrastructure is sitting right there.”

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/260663/Fort-William-First-Nation,-Noront-Resources-discuss-chromite-processing-plant

Future of power plant in government's hands

Meeting with energy minister a success, say area delegates

CBC News

Posted: Nov 13, 2012 5:51 PM ET

Last Updated: Nov 13, 2012 5:14 PM ET

Ontario Energy Minister Chris Bentley has said he will review data from the Ontario Power Authority relating to the future of the Thunder Bay Generating Station. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

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130 workers hang in balance of coal plant decisionOPG halts conversion of Thunder Bay coal plant

The uncertain future of the Thunder Bay Generating Station will be decided by the provincial government and not by Ontario Power Generation or the Ontario Power Authority.

That was the bottom line following a meeting on Tuesday between area delegates and Ontario Energy Minister Chris Bentley, according to Thunder Bay city councillor Joe Virdiramo.

“In the end, government, through the minister of energy, will make a decision. It won't be up to the OPA or OPG, it will be up to government to make that decision on the information that they have,” said Virdiramo.

The future of the coal-fired plant and some 130 jobs has been in doubt since OPG stopped working to convert it to natural gas, pending further review of northwestern Ontario’s electricity needs by the OPA.

OPA has said it can get power to the region more cheaply by other means including retransmission, and that it does not need electricity from the Thunder Bay site.

Delegates from the city and the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association met with the minister in Toronto, arguing that the plant should be kept open.

Virdiramo said he was satisfied with the outcome. The minister said he would look at OPA’s data and decide if it's valid, said Virdiramo.

Thunder Bay-Atikokan Liberal MPP Bill Mauro also attended the meeting. He told CBC it was important for the minister to get a regional perspective on the issue. "To just ensure that he understood our point of view, not only for Thunder Bay, but for all of northwestern Ontario in terms of where we feel we're going to need to be from an energy standpoint in the years ahead", he said. Mauro added that he felt that case was made to the minister very well.

City councillor Larry Hebert heard about the details of the meeting on a teleconference from Toronto to Thunder Bay city hall. He said if the government does mothball the plant, the city should purchase it.

Hebert said he doesn't know the value of the plant, but estimates it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“It's something that we've put on the table before,” he said. “I think it's an option they should look at if they're not willing to keep the plant open."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/11/13/tby-power-plant-meeting.html