Hyped but not over. Hyped for good reasons.

"the Ring of Fire mining development area in northern Ontario has YET to live up to its promise."
About the only whole truth in that article, my change of YET above into capital letters.

Just because it has not happened yet or that Cliffs is backing out (for two reasons, electrical power costs and their problems with income from iron) of the Ring does not negate the fact that it is, if not same in value, definitely next to the Tar sands.

A value for the minerals of the Ring is often quoted at 60 billion dollars But that is just what is known Now. It is in an early stage and the potential value is very likely double that and could for all practical purposes be triple that.

Granted the yearly needs for chromium do not come close in dollar value to that of oil or many other valuable minerals.

But what is important here is that we can not do without it and it is a source of supply for close to a century.

Just because governments are slow in easing it's development also does not negate it's value nor potential.

As for chromate, it is assumed that just because chromate can be bought from South Africa then north americans have nothing to worry about. That is faulty reasoning. Note present electricity and labour problems in South Africa.

What is true is that north America does not have a local supply yet and is therefore dependent on South Africa. Should any catastrophy or war occur to cut the supply, north America would stand hopeless. Yes, chromium is a strategic mineral and could be as critical as oil itself given some circumstances.

That expert must have an axe to grind or is being paid for those comments imho, of course I can say the above because I am no expert, lol.