Jumping on the mining bandwagon: Thunder Bay game plans for mining super cycle.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: MINING

Thunder Bay isn't being tepid about maximizing the potential spinoffs in the mineral industry. The city is putting together an aggressive game plan to reap the full benefits of a growing stable of mine developments across the region.

Municipal officials and their consultants took a still-developing Mining Readiness Strategy to the public this fall to present an exciting big picture of the profound impact that the coming mining boom will have on Thunder Bay's economy.

Thirteen new mines and expansions are anticipated to go into operation across the northwest over the next five years.

The Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) and its Fort William First Nation partner hired SNC-Lavalin and Edward Hoshizaki Development Consulting to wrap their collective heads around how big this industry can get and how the city can best benefit from the spinoff opportunities.

This economic development strategy is being coined the Thunder Bay Advantage.

John Mason, the CEDC's mining services manager, said area communities can't wait until the last minute for the mining companies to green light projects.

"For the municipalities, that might be too late," said Mason, a former provincial geoscientist with the Ontario Geological Survey.

"They've got to start thinking about subdivisions and infrastructure.

They've got to hedge their bets based on the facts before us that indicate the bulk of these projects are going to go, if not all of them."

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There will be an influx of construction workers, skilled labour and a surge of incoming supply companies looking for property to set up shop.

The scale of these projects are too big to ignore, said Mason.

The region is a breadbasket of gold, chromite, platinum-palladium, nickel, iron ore and lithium-rare metals deposits.

Companies like Stillwater Mining of Montana acquired the Marathon PGM project and landed a deep-pocketed development partner in Japan's Mitsubishi.

On everyone's lips is Cliffs Natural Resources, the lead player in the Ring of Fire chromite development. Quebec's Osisko Mining Corp. is developing the Hammond Reef gold project in Atikokan and construction of Detour Gold's massive Detour Lake project, north of Cochrane, is a "second to none type of project," said Mason.

And there's growing international investor interest coming from China and India.

Mason said area producers Goldcorp and Barrick routinely yield between one-third to 40 per cent of Canada's annual gold...