Good timing Timmins!

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http://www.timminspress.com/2018/06/26/timmins-sweetens-the-pot-for-noront

Timmins sweetens the pot for Noront

By Ron Grech, The Daily Press (Timmins)

Tuesday, June 26, 2018 1:06:23 EDT AM

Alan Coutts, the president and CEO of Noront Resources, was a keynote speaker at the Big Event Mining Expo held in Timmins a couple of weeks ago. He told an audience there his company will not locate its ferrochrome plant where it is not wanted.

TIMMINS - Timmins council approved financial incentives last week in hopes of enticing Noront Resources which is looking for a location to establish a $1-billion ferrochrome plant.

While the city was trying to sweeten the pot for Noront, a group in Sudbury is hoping their city loses out in the bid for this plant.

Members of No Ferrochrome Sudbury were planning to hold an “information protest” in Sudbury Tuesday morning as a show of opposition to the prospect of the plant being located in Sudbury.

“The event is to raise awareness about the potential for hexavalent chromium to contaminate the City of Greater Sudbury’s water treatment facility on the Wahnapitae River,” No Ferrochrome Sudbury stated in a release. “This treatment facility provides drinking water to 60% of the city’s population, including New Sudbury, Garson, Coniston and Wahnapitae.”

Last week, Timmins council passed a bylaw approving new economic incentives for industries looking to develop brownfields within the City of Timmins.

Noront would likely be a beneficiary of such a program if it chooses Timmins since they would be looking at the redevelopment an industrial site in the city’s east end. City officials have been suggesting to Noront the old metallurgical site in Hoyle would be an ideal location for the ferrochrome plant since it is already zoned for mineral processing and it has all the necessary servicing and infrastructure already in place.

Today’s protest in Sudbury comes as Noront Resources is considering which of four Northern Ontario communities to locate its plant, which would process chromite ore from the Ring of Fire in the James Bay lowlands.

Noront wants to build a ferrochrome smelter to process material from the Ring of Fire.

Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay are all in the running for the smelter, which would create up to 350 direct and indirect jobs. The company is expected to make a decision about the location later this year.

If Sudbury is selected, the plant would be located on a former Vale site in Coniston.