Chiefs rally behind exploration protest
CARL CLUTCHEY
01/20/2010


District media organizations are to get a first-hand look today at a series of protests being staged by remote native groups near a potentially huge chromite deposit about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

Thunder Bay-based Nishnawbe-Aski Nation is chartering a plane to take reporters to Marten Falls First Nation – the community leading the protest – and possibly to Ring of Fire exploration sites at Kopper and McFaulds lakes.

Marten Falls Chief Eli Moonias said he‘s frustrated that exploration companies working in the area are not using the band‘s air strip or winter access road.

Ontario Provincial Police officers are monitoring the situation but Thunder Bay Sgt. Shelley Garr said the OPP doesn‘t plan to have any officers at the protests.

Meanwhile, other area chiefs rallied behind Moonias on Tuesday.

“These conflicts will continue to arise if First Nations are not given an equal opportunity to benefit from businesses and meaningful jobs,” Aroland First Nation Chief Sonny Gagnon said in a news release.

Toronto-based Noront Resources, one of the main Ring of Fire exploration companies, said the protests shouldn‘t “limit or otherwise disrupt our ability to continue active work programs in the area.”

Noront CEO Wes Hanson said he contacted Moonias about the protest.

“While we consider the denial of service at Kopper Lake to be unfair to Noront, we will abide by the denial of service,‘‘ Hanson said in a news release.

The Ring of Fire project is touted as one of the world‘s largest deposits of chromite, a key ingredient in the production of stainless steel.

If developed, an operating mine could mean thousands of jobs when on-site mining production, the construction of a 300-kilometre short line and support services are factored in.

Noront said “it has been (company) policy from the beginning to actively work with and communicate with the First Nations communities impacted by the company‘s exploration activity in the Ring of Fire.”