Cliffs meets mayor

By CAROL MULLIGAN, THE SUDBURY STAR

Posted 3 hours ago

A new corporate tax structure and a 25% industrial energy rebate make Ontario "more than competitive" in what it can offer Cliffs Natural Resources to convince the Cleveland-based mining company to build a ferrochrome processing plant here, says Rick Bartolucci.

Add to that the fact that Sudbury has the best qualified milling and smelting employees in the world, and there is no reason for Cliffs to look further than the Nickel City to process ore mined in the Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario, says the Sudbury MPP.
Bartolucci said he is working with community partners to persuade Cliffs to see "the dramatic potential" that Sudbury has for it to build a smelter.

Cliffs released a report Feb. 3 naming Sudbury as its base case for establishing a ferrochrome smelter at a brown-field location about 25 kilometres from Capreol.
But that only means the site is being considered during discussions about what makes the best economic sense for Cliffs about where to locate the site.
Many other communities in Ontario can make a strong case for Cliffs' ore to be processed there, but "we have to ensure that our case is stronger," said Bartolucci.
Thunder Bay hopes to attract the smelter, as does Rouyn-Noranda in northern Quebec, among other locations.
Bill Boor, president of Cliffs' ferroalloy division, hinted it will be hard for Ontario to compete with provinces such as Quebec and Manitoba, whose hydro rates are half or less those of Ontario.
But Bartolucci said the government of Premier Dalton McGuinty has several incentives to make locating in Northern Ontario the best choice for Cliffs.
Representatives from Cliffs are to visit Sudbury today and will meet with Mayor Marianne Matichuk and staff from the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation.
Paul Demers, a spokesman for the mayor's office, said the purpose of the meeting will be to ask Cliffs what Sudbury would have to do to be selected as the site for the ferrochrome smelter.

Cliffs has an aggressive target of opening the smelter by 2015. Hundreds of people would be employed during the construction phase and about 500 employees would staff the smelter when it is built.

Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas is eager to attract those jobs to her riding, but she maintains that Ontario's energy policies are not going to make that easy.
Electricity policies made in Toronto have had a devastating effect on the mining and forestry industries, "the bread and butter of the people of the North," charged Gelinas.
Rather than offering a "one off " on electricity rates for a company such as Cliffs, New Democrats want policies that respect First Nations claims to properties such as the Ring of Fire and consideration for the amount of clean energy produced in the North.
Otherwise, the likelihood of Cliffs establishing a processing plant in Sudbury or even Northern Ontario "doesn't bode well," said Gelinas.
Boor said this week that representatives of his company were touring several communities under consideration as a site for the ferrochrome smelter.
Wherever the smelter is located, it will be for the long haul. Cliffs expects to process chromite from the Ring of Fire for at least 30 years, said Boor.