Momentum builds with Noront's ferrochrome facility; community introduction to be made shortly

It won’t be long before Noront Resources returns to Sault Ste. Marie to meet the community and tell residents a little more about its plans for building a ferrochrome production facility on brownfield industrial land.

In fact, it’s anticipated that company officials will be back in the Sault in early June to launch its high-level engagement and consultation with the community.

The substantive consultation won’t begin for some time as the project is strongly linked to the development of a year-round road to the Ring of Fire, said Mayor Christian Provenzano.

In the meantime, city and EDC representatives will work with Noront to support their community engagement efforts, he said.

“The team has talked after Tuesday’s announcement with Noront and all of us agree it’s critical to get back here quickly, in June, to start some engagement work and have people meet them and get to know them and have some questions answered,” Provenzano said.

The process will introduce the community to Noront, to its philosophy, processes and technology to acclimatize Sault Ste. Marie to the project and Noront.

“It’s a preliminary step, an introductory meeting to show the community that they are committed,” said Provenzano.

Noront is working with Provenzano, community development and enterprise services deputy CAO Tom Vair, and Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. executive director Dan Hollingsworth to map out exactly what types of meetings should be held and with whom.

Those meetings may take on a range of high-level technology information about the process, general public meetings either through micro or macro presentations or targeted meetings with selected groups or organizations.

Details have yet to be mapped out but Provenzano said he anticipates that will be done over the next little while.

Hollingsworth said the Sault FPF Project website has also been updated to include information about Tuesday’s announcement.

It will continue to be updated with questions and answers believed to be common by residents as the project moves forward and more information becomes available, he said.

Twenty-three questions and answers are currently posted on the website, providing some of the basic information that the community likely wants to know, Hollingsworth said.

The website can be accessed at www.saultfpfproject.com .

Hollingsworth said Noront already has the expertise educating communities like the Sault and neighbouring First Nation.

“We will help facilitate the formal consultations and continue to manage and update the website as more information becomes available. It’s the best resource to keep all the information in one place,” he said.

Obviously, impact on the environment and on personal health are two key areas that residents what to know about.

Provenzano said he too had concerns and wanted more information when he first began talking to Noront and he has now received those answers and is satisfied that that the project is good for the community.

On the environmental side, Provenzano said he’s sensitive to global warming and believes that internationally, people need to do more to help the environment.

In reality, he explained, the majority of chromite ore is currently processed in South Africa and then shipped to China and processed there, where there is less environmental regulations.

It only makes sense that to reduce global CO2 emissions, processing materials needs to occur closer to home and in areas that have regulations in place to minimize the impact on the environment.

“That’s what influenced my thinking,” said Provenzano. “If companies can produce in North America and process minerals here, that would reduce the production from China that is mined in South Africa, resulting in a net positive for the environment.”

More specific questions regarding CO2 emissions, by-products and disposal techniques will also be asked and answered by Noront over time, he said.

“I’ve asked those questions and I’ve got the answers but I think we need to give the broader community the opportunity to ask them and satisfy themselves with the answers,” Provenzano said.

In addition, a ferrochrome facility has a much lower CO2 emission rate than the steel industry and the company is committed to mitigating CO2 emissions.

The city is also embarking upon its own inventory of CO2 emissions and that will allow for better monitoring of emissions, Provenzano said.

The community will also want to know what, if any, impact a ferrochrome plant will have on the health of nearby residents.

Provenzano said Noront will have to ensure that any byproducts are caught on site, not only for the community at large, but for its 300 workers.

Technology is available to capture the dust that is created and as a result, there should be no health consequences at the facility.

“I’ve satisfied myself that they are very diligent in that respect and that any issues that are created by a metallurgical process have been dealt with effectively in other communities, with older technology,” he said.

The announcement also offers the possibility of jobs to many, both in the construction industry and long-term with Noront.

The potential impact of building a $1-billion facility is greater than Sault Ste. Marie – or anywhere in Northern Ontario – has seen in decades.

Sault MPP Ross Romano referred to it as the largest private investment Sault Ste. Marie has seen since the time of industrialist F.H. Clergue.

It’s expected that three years of construction, estimated to begin in 2025, could employ more than 1,500 people.

The anticipated lower operating costs for Noront and the site’s proximity to the port and the Great Lakes were contributing factors that helped seal the deal.

Sault Ste. Marie’s Construction Association manger Adam Pinder called it “a project of a generation for the area” and expects it will have massive impacts for direct and indirect jobs and the construction trade as a whole.

He’s also hoping that the announcement will encourage young people to look more closely at careers in the skilled trades.

“With this type of work on the horizon, I hope it acts as a catalyst for young people,” he said.

He anticipates enough work to be spread around locally and attract others from other communities because of the project’s size.

“My members have been very positive, very excited and pleased that this has been announced, even if it’s some years into the future,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for a win like this for a long time.”

Rory Ring, CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce, also said the announcement is an excellent opportunity for the communityto show its leadership in building a facility with the latest technology and innovation to address environmental concerns.

It also offers an opportunity to develop Indigenous relationships, he said.

The chamber made the Ring of Fire a national significant initiative through its Canadian association leadership in 2016, Ring said.

That policy called on the chamber network to make sure the federal government recognizes the nationally significant and multi-generational project. It recommended that the federal government work with industry partners and communities to build community readiness as the Ring of Fire develops and that mining is promoted as a global player in the economy.

“We could be a real leader in process development and we would be recognizing the sensitivity that people have around the environment and the environmental impact while recognizing our cultural heritage within the Indigenous community in relationship to the land and the water,” Ring said.