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HomeNewsNoront picks Sault Ste. Marie to host smelter for Ring of Fire

Noront picks Sault Ste. Marie to host smelter for Ring of Fire

Sault Ste. Marie and not Timmins has been chosen to house a smelter for the Ring of Fire.

Noront Resources, the biggest player at the Ring of Fire, announced Sault Ste. Marie as the city to host its Ferrochrome Production Facility Tuesday morning.

Alan Coutts, the President and CEO of Noront, says the Sault was picked as the smelter site based on its environmental and site suitability.

Coutts says another factor when choosing the city was the community’s willingness to host the smelter.

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The plan is to build the smelter on Algoma Steel property.

Noront is now finalizing a land agreement to that end.

Once complete, the smelter will employ 300 to 500 people and create more than 1,000 spinoff jobs.

Construction to build the $1 billion facility is expected to start during mid-2025 and take three years to complete.

However, Noront says the timeline also depends on developing the road infrastructure to the large chromite site.

Before the smelter is built it will have to go through an environmental and feasibility assessments.

In addition, the community will be consulted and there will also be public engagement.

Noront Resources President Alan Coutts (standing) with Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano making the smelter announcement in Toronto. Photo credit: Noront Resources

Noront began looking for a smelter site about 18 months ago.

In the beginning, Thunder Bay and Sudbury were also considered as possible candidates but last July Noront ruled both cities out leaving only the Sault and Timmins left in the running.

The Sault bid had the support of the city’s MP and MPP as well as two nearby First Nations, the Batchewana First Nation and Garden River First Nation.

The Ring of Fire is considered to contain one of the largest ore bodies of chromite in the world with the ability to create thousands of jobs for generations.

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