Environmental assessment begins on ring of fire project: no announcement made on Cliffs ferrochrome furnace site.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: NEWS

The first stage of a federal environmental assessment on Cliffs Natural Resources' chromite project in the James Bay region began in October.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) began taking written submissions last month on the massive, multi-billion dollar regional mining, transportation and processing development slated for the McFauld's Lake exploration camp.

The agency announced Oct. 7 that a comprehensive study of the Cliffs project in the 'Ring of Fire' has formally started with a notice of commencement.

While it's clear that Black Thor will be the first chromite deposit to be mined starting in 2015, and the Naki-na-Aroland area will be the site for a transload facility, the final location of a much-coveted ferrochrome production facility remains up in the air.

But CEAA spokeswoman Celine Legault said the federal regulator will be working from the project description submitted by Cliffs, which identifies Sudbury in its "base case," as the site for the electric arc furnaces.

"This is the information we will be using for the environmental assessment," said Legault. "If this part of the project description changes during the (assessment), the agency will consider these changes carefully and make a decision at that time," said Legault.

Sudbury was identified earlier this year by the Ohio-based international miner (and again in September) as the leading front-runner to host the ferrochrome plant, ahead of Nakina, Timmins and Thunder Bay.

The property under consideration is a vacated brown-field site 20 kilometres north of the community of Ca-preol. It's within a kilometre of the Canadian National Railway's main line which runs northwest to Nakina.

Bill Boor, Cliffs' senior vice-president for global ferroalloys, said the 30-day comment period "is, by far, not the only opportunity" for the public to have their say on the environmental aspect of the project as it advances.

"We'll have this furnace issue resolved with plenty of opportunity for people to participate in the process." He gave no timeline when a decision is forthcoming.

"If you took me back in time, I wrould have liked to already had it made. I'm not going to put a date on it, but it's a high priority for us to figure that out," said Boor. ' "Every other aspect of the project is pretty clear."

The production process would employ electric arc furnaces which would produce between 1,250 and 1,750 tonnes of ferrochrome daily to be sold for stainless steel...