TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ring of Fire- (RoF-) focused explorer KWG Resources this week launched a social media campaign to promote its proposed RoF bill to Ontario election candidates and voters, drawing more than 240 signatures to a petition it intends to submit to the next Ontario government.

Ontarians will head to the polls on June 12 in the province’s 41st general election, after the Liberal provincial government was dissolved on May 2.

KWG president and CEO Frank Smeenk said that the company had taken a leadership-role in a bid to end the “political gridlock” surrounding development of the region, which is located in the remote northern reaches of the province.

He stressed that KWG’s proposals are “real and achievable solutions”.

“The RoF is an economically and socially transformative project that will benefit every citizen and community of Ontario, especially in the North, as well as all Canadians, for many generations.

“I encourage all RoF supporters to participate in this process by having your voices heard and helping spread the message to every corner of this country. Together, we will get the RoF going,” Smeenk said on Monday.

The company holds a 30% interest in the Big Daddy chromite deposit and the right to earn 80% of the Black Horse chromite deposit, located in the RoF.

As part of its social media campaign that would run until election day, KWG launched a search engine programme targeting specific and relevant terms pertaining to the candidates, the RoF and Northern Ontario; an online petition through a petition platform; links to an online database of Members of the Provincial Parliament candidates by riding, containing their full contact information; and social media sharing tools.

THE PLAN

KWG had devised a plan, backed by its own proposed bill, which would turn the Ontario Northland Transportation Corporation (ONTC) into the Northern Transportation Corporation. Residents of Northern Ontario and the development corporation would govern the ONTC, and project financing would be raised through capital markets to pay for transportation and other infrastructure needed to develop mining projects in the RoF, located about 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay.

The main operating asset of the ONTC is the Ontario Northland Railroad (ONR), which has become starved of freight haulage.

However, the discoveries of chromite and nickel in the RoF could create the potential for much heavy-haulage freight business with which the ONR might become economically viable.

According to the plan, the ONTC add to heritage infrastructure the facilities that the northern residents desire. This would ensure an inclusive approach of the communities it serves, many of which are First Nations, allowing them to participate in the region’s development.

“This would enable development to be undertaken with the necessary social licence, together with the discipline of the capital markets, rather than from the public purse,” KWG said.

KWG is asking residents to get involved and back its plan by calling or emailing candidates in the June 12 election, signing the KWG petition that would be presented to whatever party forms the next government and sharing the company's plan through Facebook and Twitter.

WHICH ROUTE?

At the end of April, the now-dissolved provincial government announced a massive $1-billion set aside in its failed budget to develop strategic all-season industrial and community transportation infrastructure in the RoF.

Former Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle, beseeched the federal government to match its contribution and throw its weight behind the development of what had been billed as a "project of national significance".

However, with no formal plan in place, how the money were to be spent remained unclear, and the private sector is backing opposing modes of transport to reach the undeveloped mine camp, and transport the minerals to market.

KWG Resources, through a subsidiary, Canada Chrome Corporation, controls the key transportation route to the RoF on land, which it acquired through claim staking in 2009.

KWG has proposed a rail route connecting to the CN transcontinental rail line at the Exton rail siding to transport ore to consumers, competing with its US-based joint venture partner Cliffs Natural Resources, which has proposed an all-weather road south connecting to the same rail line west of Exton. Cliffs’ plan is to transport chromite concentrate by rail to Capreol, in the Sudbury area, where it plans to build a ferrochrome production facility.

TSX-V-listed Noront Resources also hailed the province's financial commitment, saying it would provide the necessary funding for building a shared road and power corridor to the benefit of local First Nations and the firm's Eagle's Nest mine, which it said would be the first mine to be developed in the RoF.

In their campaign platform, the Liberals have promised to establish a development corporation within 60 days of being re-elected.

Gravelle in November announced the creation of a development corporation; however, little progress had been made in establishing it when the legislature dissolved last month.

The provincial government and local First Nations had recently signed a regional framework agreement to develop the RoF.

The agreement was hailed as a first step in the historic, community-based negotiation process that would aim to bring together the nine First Nations and Ontario to discuss and negotiate an approach for development in the First Nations' traditional territories. The process would help ensure that First Nations participate in, and benefit from, RoF developments.