No decision yet but Noront CEO likes Timmins' bid

Alan Coutts, the president and CEO of Noront Resources, said this week that his company is aware Timmins is offering a “very good site” as a possible location for a future chromite smelter connected to the Ring of Fire mining development. Coutts was speaking at the gala dinner for the Big Event Mine Expo.

TIMMINS - Alan Coutts, a key man responsible for deciding the future location of a new chromite smelter in Northern Ontario, really likes what he sees in Timmins.

He said so in Timmins at the gala dinner for the Big Event Mine Expo held at the Senator Hotel Tuesday night.

Coutts, the CEO and President of Noront Resources, was one of several high-profile mining executives invited to speak on the immediate future of mining in Northeastern Ontario.

As the head of the company that holds the greatest land position in the chromite mining development known as the Ring of Fire, Coutts will be among those in his company that will decide which Northern Ontario city will be selected as the primary site for a chromite smelter.

Timmins is one of the communities that has submitted a formal bid. Also in the running are Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.

The submission by Timmins has showcased the Glencore Kidd Operations metallurgical site in Hoyle Township, also well known locally as the Met Site.

As he talked about the bidding situation, Coutts commented on the process involved in selecting a site.

“A lot of you might not know this but the last smelter that was permitted in Ontario was the Kidd smelter, the Met Site. That was a long time ago,” said Coutts.

“And so we weren’t kidding ourselves. We were thinking, wow if we permit a smelter in Ontario. Well, I was just talking about how hard it was to permit a mine. Think about a smelter,” said Coutts.

He said Noront is being careful to determine exactly what it is getting into because this is something the company will be doing for many, many years.

“And we thought to ourselves, well if we’re going to be at this for years, we better make sure we get the right partner for this. And so this is why we came out and approached the Northern Ontario cities,” said Coutts.

He said the ideal situation would involve repurposing existing infrastructure. Coutts said it would not make sense to look at a new greenfield site when there are already sites that have worthwhile infrastructure in place.

“Especially when it can reduce your capital by providing you with existing roads and rail and importantly for us, electrical infrastructure,” he said.

Coutts also spoke to the issue of community acceptance, something that has become an issue in a couple of Northern Ontario cities. In both Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, some citizens have publicly questioned whether their communities really want a smelter.

Coutts did not specifically speak to those communities, but he spoke about it in general.

“We need to have a community that is supportive and interested in the project and understands it as well. Because what you don’t want to do is start a process where you’re going down the road for years and years, permitting the process, only to find out the community doesn’t want it anyway,” he said.

He said that has become an important consideration for the company, but he stopped short of saying that Timmins was any sort of a favourite or had any specific advantage.

Coutts said the selection team is excited about the general concept for picking the community and the smelter site. He said company officials have already visited the Kidd met site to see what is has to offer.

“That’s a very good site that we have been evaluating as part of our process,” he said.