| Ring of Fire" Potential for Wawa | | Print | |
| Written by Municipality of Wawa | |
Thursday, January 20th, 2011 - 13:13:41  The Municipality of Wawa has written to Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister, the Honourable Michael Gravelle, to elicit support for the community to become a hub for the “Ring of Fire”.A letter sent to the Minister on January 17, 2011 states in part that Wawa boasts some very good assets that could be used for the success of the “Ring of Fire”. Those assets include: the developed Michipicoten Harbour which has already attracted private sector funds; a significant brownfield site for any potential processing facility; First Nation and municipal ownership of the rail bed from Hawk Junction to the Michipicoten Harbour; and access to the Algoma Central Railway at Hawk Junction which provides a connection to the Canadian National Railway. The “Ring of Fire” is the name that has been given to a major mining discovery in Northern Ontario, 500 kilometers northeast of Thunder Bay that holds massive deposits of copper sulfide, diamonds, nickel, copper, platinum, palladium and perhaps the world’s largest deposit of chromite. Reports indicate that six communities are in line to host the necessary processing facilities for the deposit. Greenstone, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury have already been mentioned as potential sites while the sixth site is said to be a community along the north shore of Lake Superior that already has a natural harbour. Mayor Linda Nowicki stated; “Our letter to Minister Gravelle in part stated that while we all recognize the horrendous downturn in the economy in the Superior East Region for the past many years, we also see the potential of revitalizing that same economy through the opportunities that the “Ring of Fire” development could bring. To that end, I have asked Minister Gravelle to give serious consideration to including Wawa as the unnamed sixth community and have further asked that he assign staff from either Sault Ste Marie or Thunder Bay to work with our region to make the development a reality.” |
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