Thunder Bay mayor happy with smelter pitch

Thunder Bay mayor Keith Hobbs was all smiles Wednesday night when he stepped off the chartered plane that took him and six others to Cleveland, Ohio.

He said the pitch the delegation made to Cliffs Natural Resources to build its chromite smelter in the northwest was well-received.

"It went very well, we had a great presentation," he said, noting that the presentation was months in the making.

Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins was part of the delegation.

Hobbssaid he thinks Thunder Bay residents are already on board.

"Well, there were over 350 people at the open house that Cliff's put on here, and from what they told us there weren't too many negative comments at all," he said. "People want work, and they want to be working in Thunder Bay."

Hobbs said he asks people about the smelter on his walkabouts, and gets positive feedback.

George Stevenson is one Thunder Bay resident who supports bringing a smelter to the area.

"It'll be a positive for our community and for the region," he said.

"It could mean a lot of machine shop work in Thunder Bay; it could mean a lot of the fellas getting employment out at the Ring of Fire."

Environmental concerns

Other people were more cautious. Pat Hovi said she has some questions.

"I think we want to know whether it's going to increase employment opportunities for the people in Thunder Bay, or whether there's an environmental issue we need to know about as well. Those are my concerns."

Hobbs said consultation with the public will be Cliffs responsibility, once it chooses the location for the smelter.

Other communities across northern Ontario including Sudbury and Timmins are vying to become the site on which the mining company chooses to build its chromite smelter.

The smelter would process ore from a chromite mine the company wants to build in the Ring of Fire area in the James Bay Lowlands. The project, known as Black Thor, hasn't been approved by the federal government yet. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency started reviewing the company's 'base-case' this fall. Cliffs has tentatively made Sudbury the host of the ferrochrome smelter in its 'base-case' plans.

Cliffs' target date to have the mine and the chromite processing facility is the end of 2013.