HIGH-GRADE NI-CU-PT-PD-ZN-CR-AU-V-TI DISCOVERIES IN THE "RING OF FIRE"
NI 43-101 Update (September 2012): 11.1 Mt @ 1.68% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.89 gpt Pt and 3.09 gpt Pd and 0.18 gpt Au (Proven & Probable Reserves) / 8.9 Mt @ 1.10% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.16 gpt Pt and 3.49 gpt Pd and 0.30 gpt Au (Inferred Resource)
Message: Up in the Air......Again
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An idea mulled over by others, and discussed on our forum before.....I think we can all agree that airships may be helpful in getting supplies and equipment up North to remote regions, but I think our First Nations and mining companies are looking for a more permanent solution to moving people, goods and commodities back and forth. Airships may act to kick start the Ring of Fire efforts, but addressing climate change with better roads, along with the also needed hydro and communication networks following along side them would be a much more sound decision in the long run.
Ships of this sort, however, may be useful in bringing redox flow battery technology and electric powered mining vechicles to the mine site, allowing Noront to reduce the need for diesel fuels, and the pollution and underground venting requirements associated with them.
Quote:
"Flow batteries are less common than their lithium-ion brethren. But as grid-scale batteries go, they offer some interesting advantages to lithium-ion that could really pay off as some of the more obvious hurdles, like energy density and temperature sensitivity, are overcome. Flow batteries generally use two electrolyte chemical solutions stored in separate tanks, which are pumped into a common area where the solutions come in contact, often through a membrane, creating electrical charge. Flow batteries are cumbersome and much less energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries, but battery capacity is only limited by how much solution you can store. On a grid-scale level, that’s an advantage—grid-tied batteries don’t need to be portable or light, but they do need to store a great deal of energy."
That is, if this type of power source is adequate for their mining needs, and readily available.
Airships ideal for North
- BY CARL CLUTCHEY, NORTH SHORE BUREAU
- Dec 1, 2017 Updated Dec 1, 2017
- 0
Debate over how to best transport cargo to the remote North may be up in the air, but experts argue future aviation technology suited to do the job is grounded in the past.
A Manitoba-based transportation analyst says governments should be supporting investments in airships, rather than continue to spend millions of dollars on temporary ice roads which, due to climate change, are becoming less reliable and short-lived.
“We spend all this money (building temporary roads) and there’s nothing to show for it,” University of Manitoba business professor Barry Prentice said Wednesday.
“It’s time to do something different.”
Prentice, who wrote a paper on remote transportation alternatives for the Northern Ontario Policy Institute, said airships with rigid structures - not traditional helium-filled blimps - have the potential to carry many tonnes of cargo to Indigenous reserves that are accessible only by airplane.
Prototype airships have already been tested in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, he noted.
Prentice envisions a small fleet of airships that could service the remote regions of Northern Ontario and Manitoba.
Though a single, rigid-structure ship could come with a price-tag of $20 million, Prentice said that would be like only a quarter of the cost of a large regular cargo aircraft.
As well, he noted, the cost of building ice roads, which may only last six weeks, adds up. This upcoming season, the Ontario government earmarked $5.8 million - $300,000 more than last year - to build more than 3,100 kilometres of roads across its remote North.
The federal government usually matches the provincial amount. Remote First Nations use the temporary roads to bring in heavy supplies like fuel and housing materials.
Earlier this year, a $5-million bridge was unveiled that will connect North Caribou Lake to the provincial road network near Pickle Lake. Ice roads may only last a month, and heavy equipment sometimes plunges through.
“Our elders have asked for the bridge for years because they have witnessed the effects of climate change,” North Caribou Chief Dinah Kanate said at the time.
Even if major trunk roads are built into the Ring of Fire mineral belt, as the Ontario government has pledged to do, it likely won’t be possible to connect every remote First Nation, said Prentice, due to the high cost of building across swamps and waterways.
“We know it can cost $2-$3 million per kilometre just for a gravel road, he said.
An airship service would best be run by a private operator, Prentice said. But governments could still play a role by helping to fund land bases and other infrastructure.
Though some may recall the ill-fated Hindenburg airship that caught fire during an attempted docking in New Jersey in 1937, resulting in the deaths of 36 people, Prentice said accidents involving airships were in fact rare, even in the 1930s.
“And we’ve learned a lot about the technology since then,” he said.
Prentice’s analysis is part of an overall critique of Ontario’s plan to revamp transportation methods in the remote north. Ideas floated so far, such as drones and hover barges, are inadequate, he says.
More information is available online at northernpolicy.ca/winterroads.
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