Noront Resources Smelter Project: 4 Candidate Cities Wait for Next Steps

A text by Stéphany Laperrière

Mineral Exploration Company Noront Resources wants to build this plant to process the chromite from the Ring of Fire mine.

Professor Jean-Charles Cachon is not surprised by the interest of the four cities for the project.

[The project] could generate about 350 direct jobs once construction is complete.

Jean-Charles Cachon, Professor of Management at Laurentian University.

The City of Greater Sudbury is banking on its rail network and infrastructure, says Councilor René Lapierre.

"We have the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway," he says. "We are the mining center of Canada with expertise, equipment and businesses. "

Trains in the City of Greater Sudbury, Northern Ontario. Photo: Radio-Canada / Miriane Demers-Lemay

The City proposes that the plant be built on the site of the former Inco mining facilities. This site is notorious for its polluting smelter , whose activities ceased in 1972.

However, according to Jean-Charles Cachon, the environmental impact would not be the same today.

"We have the ability to develop facilities that can meet our expectations in terms of sustainable management and environmental preservation," he says.

The Ring of Fire is located approximately 540 km north of Thunder Bay and approximately 240 km west of James Bay. Photo: Radio-Canada

Councilor René Lapierre also said that he had visited facilities in Finland similar to those that Noront Resources would like to build and said that environmental studies were reassuring.

"This closed-type foundry style captures about 90% of the waste that can be reused in other processes," he says.

Too early to move forward

Sault Ste. Marie relies on its expertise in the metallurgy sector.

"We have more than 100 years of history in this sector, industrial sites with the necessary zoning and our location are very practical," said Mayor Christian Provenzano.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Pierre-Mathieu Tremblay

He refuses however to advance on the chances of the city to be retained.

I do not want to create false hope, it's a long-term project and it all depends on the development of the Ring of Fire.

Christian Provenzano, Mayor of Sault Ste. Marie

He recalls that there is still no permanent road to go to the Ring of Fire.