Noront Resources

Ninning in the Ring of Fire

ou might think that north-western Ontario is a chilly place, but for Noront Resources, things are just heating up. In fact, this exploration company’s flagship project is affectionately called the Ring of Fire.

In August 2007, Noront discovered a high-grade nickel-copper-platinum palladium—the Eagle One discovery. This finding led to an unprecedented staking rush on the geological structures surrounding it. In February 2008, Noront found another massive nickel-copper deposit—appropriately named Eagle Two—just two kilometres from the first. It doesn’t stop there. Two high-grade chromite deposits—Blackbird One and Two—were discovered within kilometres of Eagle properties. It should come as no surprise, then, that Noront considers this area to be one blazing hot spot.
Joseph Hamilton, interim co-CEO, is excited about the Ring of Fire, explaining that Noront will keep drilling out each deposit to define them.

“Although the deposits are not completely defined yet and our exploration is ongoing, they certainly look like they have the tonnage and grade to be classified as world-class,” says Hamilton. “It’s exciting because both nickel and chromite are required in stainless steel manufacturing, which is a huge industry. We expect that our discoveries will be very profitable.”
Although Noront owns many other properties—from New Brunswick to China to Mexico—the Ring of Fire, and the 120,000 acres surrounding it, remains their focus.

“We’re concentrating all of our efforts into north-western Ontario for a number of reasons,” explains Hamilton. “It’s politically stable, which is important, and it’s an area where we think we can attract future investment. If it comes to the feasible development stage for these deposits, there will be a certain amount of debt accrued during the development. Being able to attract that debt is easier in Canada these days than elsewhere. Ontario is a less risky place.”

Even though the Ring of Fire encompasses several mineral deposits—both Eagles and Blackbirds—Noront maintains that none are more important than the others.

“We’re taking a holistic view with the Ring of Fire,” says Hamilton. “If there’s going to be development, it’s going to be to all of them together, as a mineral belt. It will be a multi-commodity mineral development that won’t just focus on nickel or platinum group elements or chromite; it will include mines that will produce all of them. The nickel and chromite deposits are so close together that they will likely be mined from a single set of infrastructure. They’re only about five kilometres apart.”

Overcoming Challenges
Even the best projects face challenges. Noront is no exception. There are a number of obstacles that Noront will need to address over the next 12 to 24 months.

“The biggest issue, of course, will be to define sufficient quantities of tonnes and grade of the minerals to be able to complete the economic studies,” explains Hamilton. “Noront will need to be able to make a case for future investment and, ultimately, production in that part of the province.”

Development in that part of Ontario is crucial. The Ring of Fire is in a remote area without road access. Well north of Thunder Bay, the project is located in the James Bay Lowlands, a largely unpopulated area. There is minimal infrastructure, lack of skilled work forces and no access to the Ontario power grid. That being said, Hamilton doesn’t seem too worried.

“Fortunately, one of the intriguing things about working in Ontario is that most of it has been opened up as a result of mineral exploration in the past. If you look at cities and towns like Red Lake, Timmins and Pickle Lake, they were developed as a result of mining activity. We believe the deposits we found will support the development of infrastructure into that area, hopefully bringing with it a new mining camp and a new settlement.”
Fanning the Flame

Noront Resources has a lot of work ahead of them, but the team is confident it will all pay off.

“Obviously we’ll continue with the Ring of Fire,” says Hamilton. “We’ve got one of the largest budgets for 2009 for a junior exploration company: $19 million, the bulk of which we intend to spend developing our projects here.”

“We still have a large number of anomalies that remain untested in the Ring of Fire,” Hamilton explains. “Noront is still reviewing that area as being a mineral belt similar to other great belts in Canada, like Timmins. There are a variety of minerals—from nickel to zinc to copper to gold—but they are all contained within a very small area. So far we’ve identified chromite and nickel, but there is also copper and zinc known in the area as well. No one has seen gold yet, but I remain convinced that we’ll have a gold discovery one day.”

That’s part of the excitement of exploration; you never know what you’re going to find. Over the next one to two years, Noront will be developing their existing targets to see what’s out there, and then move those towards feasibility.

“It’s an encouraging area because it’s underexplored,” Hamilton concludes. “In fact, our region hasn’t seen exploration since 200 years before we arrived. From that perspective, it’s young and it’s going to take a lot of effort in the next 15 to 20 years, but I think we’ll see that area continuing to produce minerals generations from now.”

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