Steve from Rockwood

In Northern Ontario is located the Ring of Fire, a geological feature in the James Bay Lowlands that holds a massive chromite deposit and a nickel-copper deposit known as the Eagle’s Nest. Exploration in 2007 led to the discovery of these ore deposits and they have yet to be mined. The area is remote from existing infrastructure with the nearest “town” of Nakina more than 300 km to the south.

Local indigenous communities such as Webequie have very small populations. Webequie, for example, is home to less than 1,500 Ojibway.

To mine the ore from the Ring of Fire will require a railway, a roadway and electrification. Early estimates of the cost for such infrastructure were $2-$4 billion and were scoffed at as being too high. Now the cost estimates are starting to trickle in.

To build a hydro line into the Ring of Fire is estimated to cost about $1.7 billion.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ring-fire-electrical-infrastructure-capex-study-finds-kevin-thomsen

The so-called “massive nickel deposit” that is the Eagle’s Nest is estimated at 20 Mt. This compares to Voiseys Bay at over 100 Mt, Thompson Manitoba at over 200 Mt and the mighty (now mostly mined-out) Sudbury Basin at over 1 Bt (B=billion).

The total cost to provide infrastructure to the Ring of Fire will exceed $4 billion – easily. The total value of the Eagle’s Nest has been estimated at $5-$7 billion in-situ (as if the ore was sitting on the ground processed and ready to ship to eager markets). The cost of mining is typically 50% of the value of the ore. This means the nickel deposit will be mined by an Australian company at a gross profit of $3.5 billion for infrastructure costs of $4 billion (and more).

It is very likely the project will go ahead. I just thought the fine taxpayers of Ontario would want to know that $4 billion of their tax revenue is being spent on a few thousand people in Northern Ontario and an Australian mining company without any discussion of who will pay to maintain the infrastructure after the mines have closed.