EDC Executive Director Dan Hollingsworth at Yesterday’s announcement at Civic Centre

 

Sault Ste. Marie has been chosen by Noront Resources as the site for a a Ferrochrome processing facility that will process chromite mined from the Ring of Fire.
The announcment was made yesterday at Civic Centre with local dignitaries on hand along with Noront CEO Alan Coutts.
The 1-billion dollar processing facility will mean 300 to 500 direct jobs, 1-thousand indirect jobs and 15-hundred construction jobs.
Noront had named 4 potential northern communities for its smelter back in November of 2017 and narrowed it down to just the Sault and Timmins in July of last year.
A number of factors were sited when it came to choosing the Sault but the tipping point according to Cotts was our location on the Great Lakes…

He talks about the next steps ahead for the project…

The development of the Ring of Fire mining projects and the smelter are dependent on road access to the Ring of Fire site.
The time frame talked about during yesterday’s announcement for construction to begin on the smelter is mid 2025 at the earliest and it will take three years to complete the construction.
Noront plans to locate the smelter on Algoma Steel property and is in the process of finalizing a land agreement.
Ferrochrome is a primary ingredient to produce stainless steel.