Editorial
The Record (Kitchener, Ontario)
There is a vast tract of northern Ontario that is a veritable treasure chest of mineral riches — but the provincial government can’t find the key to opening it up.
Experts say the 5,000-square-kilometre Ring of Fire, with its estimated $60-billion worth of chromite, nickel, copper, zinc and gold, could do for Ontario what the oilsands have done for Alberta — attract new investment, create thousands of new, high-paying jobs while boosting overall provincial prosperity. And for these reasons the government has, since 2010 and with much self-congratulatory fanfare, tried to help open the area to development.
But that initiative suffered a severe and, for the politicians, embarrassing setback last week when Cliffs Natural Resources Ltd. suspended development of its proposed $3.3-billion chromium mine.