TORONTO - Premier Dalton McGuinty is enlisting Prime Minister Stephen Harper to help develop the Ring of Fire.

“His curiosity was piqued,” McGuinty said Thursday of a meeting he had with Harper on Tuesday.

McGuinty said he asked the PM to work with First Nations in and around the remote area 250 km west of James Bay to help build the roads and infrastructure necessary to develop the Ring of Fire.

The area contains the largest chromite find in North America. Chromite is used to make stainless steel.

McGuinty once said Ontarians can’t stake their future on “pulling stuff from the ground” as western Canadian economies have been able to do but is now warming to his province’s major role in North American mining.