Feds budget for high-tech mining, Aboriginal training – Northern Ontario Business
There wasn’t a billion-dollar Ring of Fire payday for Ontario in the April 21 federal budget, but Ottawa is willing to fund some of the technological challenges, exploration know-how and training requirements to support the idled Far North mineral play.
Ottawa is setting aside $23 million over five years to advance new technology for separating and processing rare earth metals and for “green processing technologies” to limit the environmental impact of mining chromite in the Ring of Fire.
In its budget documents, the government said the estimated 105 million tons of chromite in Ontario’s Far North could make Canada a “significant global producer, processor and supplier” of the metal used in stainless steel and other alloy production.
