Jim Rondeau, a former Manitoba NDP cabinet minister who is now the major projects director for Norway House, says the project has been rebranded as a critical minerals project, after the discovery of magnesium and other platinum-group metals, such as rhodium, platinum and palladium.
“Instead of a nickel project, we found out that we had a treasure chest of all sorts of critical minerals and very obscure minerals that really makes the project much more valuable, and unbelievably more attractive to produce,” Rondeau said.
An assessment of the mining site found 60 metres of dolomite rock that contains what he says is a significant amount of pure magnesium.
This is an interesting project. Mining is a very capital intensive business so I really hope it works out for them. First nations do not often reap their due reward for mining on their land so I hope this proves to be a viable model.
On a seperate note, I find the tag line “more viable than the ring of fire” pretty funny because thats true for most projects in my opinion. I remember first hearing about the ring of fire ten years ago from one of the guys that helped discover it like 10-15 years before that. The fact that we are barely closer to mining it now than we were back then says something. Im sure it will happen some day because there is the political will for it, but it honestly feels like a money pit.
23 years ago I was working at an airport that had a Dash 8 doing those surveys. The local community was pinning a lot of hopes on that mining … until many of the test drill sites came up uranium-positive.
As of now I know more than a few people who have to use bottled water for everything.
Or, it my not be. I hate these conjecture headlines. Lot’s of calories but not much substance. Good talking froth though. The new “weather”.