Alarm raised over plans to export chromite to China

NDP MPP Gilles Bisson has raised the alarm over Ontario’s plan to allow Cliffs to export about 50 percent of its Ring of Fire chromite ore to China for processing.
Bisson, the MPP for Timmins-James Bay, said the province is effectively “low-balling” itself on the Ring of Fire.
“Allowing Cliffs to remove the ore, 50 per cent of it, on ships to China for processing is selling Ontario short when it comes to our capacity to add value to the minerals that will come out of the Ring of Fire,” Bisson said.
“We think this is a very good opportunity to develop stainless steel here in Ontario, and that doing so would allow us to capture all kinds of employment opportunities and the full benefit of producing stainless steel in the province,” he added.
“That can be done economically, but to do that the province is going to have to roll up its sleeves.”
Bisson added that resource royalty agreements with First Nations and joint planning sessions between the province and First Nations should be set up immediately to ensure that benefits of the development accrue to First Nations as well as the rest of the province.
Included in Cliffs’ plan for its Ring of Fire chromite mine is a processing facility in Sudbury where up to 60 percent of the ore from the mine is scheduled to be processed into stainless steel.
Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle defended the province’s approach to processing chromite, telling CBC News that having half of the ore processed in Ontario is better than none.
“[If the proposal is successful], what we’re going to be seeing … [is] the first ferrochrome processing facility in North America,” Gravelle said. “We’re going to see value-added opportunity in the province of Ontario that was never there before.”
But Bisson argues it is not enough. He noted that the government must provide a ministerial exemption to allow Cliffs to export the ore out of province, which it is planning to do. That shows the Liberal’s lack of political will to keep the ore in Ontario, Bisson said.