The Ring of Fire, Canada
Discover Canada series.
As old as Canada is, by North American standards, it still has many things to be discovered. One of the most significant natural resource discoveries occurred not too long ago in 2007, and was named after a Johnny Cash song: The Ring of Fire.
It is located 550 km north of Thunder Bay, spanning an area of 5,000 square kilometers, which is approximately eight times the size of Toronto. It might be one of the largest mineral reserves in Ontario. That area of the Canadian Shield is under-discovered and turns out not to be just a mosquito-infested swamp, as assumed for years.
It first popped up on the radar when DeBeers discovered deposits of copper and zinc while searching for diamonds, but didn’t make much of it and moved on. In 2007 Norton Resources led by Richard Nemis, and co-discoverers John Harvey, Donald Hoy, Neil Novak, and Mac Watson announced their discovery, and everyone took notice. The rush was on, and the area was overrun with prospectors.
The Ring of Fire is remote and has no rail or roads to it, which is part of the problem. The closest road to it is around 300km away, and ice roads are only good for about 2 months a year. It requires significant and sufficient infrastructure built just to get to it, and of course, to get the material out. As per typical Canadian fashion, we are still thinking about it and doing consultations.
The Ring of Fire is part of the James Bay Lowlands and is the traditional territory of several First Nations. Some of the First Nations in the area are fly-in only, and many of them still live off the land. The region is home to 30,000 Indigenous people and one of Ontario’s largest populations of Indigenous peoples.
The region has never had large-scale industrial development, with the land being undisturbed and cared for by Indigenous people. The land isn’t only important to First Nations who depend on it, but also to the world.
The area is breathtakingly beautiful, being part of Canada’s boreal forests and one of the largest peatland and wetland complexes in the world. It is a habitat for species at risk like caribou, wolverine, lake sturgeon, and the main nesting area for nearly 200 types of migratory birds. Peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store, and Canada’s peatlands store more than 150 billion tonnes of carbon.
The catch here is that any mining in the area, which is full of resources for EVs and other renewable energy-related technologies, will unleash massive amounts of stored carbon. That seems to be in conflict with a carbon-taxing Liberal government.
However, a wild card was thrown into the equation, and that wild card is Donald Trump and the tariffs. That seems to have drastically changed the resource conversation in Canada, with a hope for action at some point.
The Liberals also bet over $52B in tax credits and handouts on the EV economy with battery plants manufacturing becoming a core plan in Canada. Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford promoted it as from mining to manufacturing, all done locally. Completely Made in Canada, if you will. Of course, this can’t happen as we don’t have the natural resources to make it happen or the manufacturing to do it, but the bet is that the Ring of Fire changes it all.
It has chromite, copper, nickel, platinum, vanadium, gold, and titanium. These are significant new critical mineral mining potentials for Canada, which puts it in a strategic geopolitical and economic position. Canada can become a core supplier and manufacturer for things like stainless steel, semiconductors, and batteries with a closed-loop process. Currently, this is Canada’s biggest economic opportunity.
At one point, Doug Ford said he would hop on a bulldozer himself to start building a road to the Ring of Fire. Now he wants to make it a special economic zone, which will exempt projects from Provincial laws and include municipal by-laws.
It isn’t clear what level of support the projects have from the new federal Liberal government, who want to build a low-carbon economy. Some local First Nations support the road construction, some support mining. Others don’t. There are some interesting lawsuits in the works, throwing a wrench into things, but we need to start throwing shovels into the dirt.
For over 20 years, Canada has been talking and doing consultations just on building a road. It will most likely not be completed by 2030. Then, companies need to set up operations. It is absolutely ridiculous that we have wasted a couple of decades’ worth of prosperity on processes. Thousands of Canadians should have been halfway through their career working there by now.
Canada still can’t figure out its own processes and laws to get things done. Liberal’s Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, is an attempt at that, but Mark Carney didn’t seem to realize the difficulties treaties bring to the table and managing First Nations.
We can’t expect companies to try navigate our red tape when our law makers can’t navigate our red tape. Investment isn’t going to wait around for Canada and investors won’t be interested in years of additional costs doing nothing.
The area around the Ring of Fire is already showing more promising finds. Time to get building and get to work.