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Canada is fast-tracking development of a critical minerals reserve over indigenous opposition to generate much-needed revenue in response to US President Donald Trump’s devastating tariffs.
Trump is a “wake-up call” for the country to kick start its economy and developing the Ring of Fire” project in the far north of Ontario is “a top priority”, the province’s premier Doug Ford told the Financial Times.
Ring of Fire “has more critical minerals than anywhere else in the world”, Ford said. “Our goal is to get things going in 24 months and seeing progress, building roads, and getting the transportation up there.”
The deposit, about 1,000km north of Toronto, was discovered in 2008 and covers roughly 5,000 square kilometres. Named for its crescent shape and geological formation it contains vast quantities of minerals, including nickel, copper and platinum elements.
But its location on lands belonging to First Nations tribes, as well as the huge costs and environmental risks involved in developing the region have delayed its progress.
Indigenous groups, along with environmental and civil liberties organisations, fear the provincial government is using the tariff threat as a pretext for pushing through the project without proper consultation.
“Long before Trump was elected, long before the tariffs, this was Ford’s plan,” said chief Wilfred King from Gull Bay First Nations. “He stated publicly that he would even ‘drive the bulldozer to the Ring in Fire,’ so he’s not fooling anybody but himself.”
Ford says he has “great partnerships” with Aroland, Webequie and Marten Falls Nations, but King said the First Nations have not been consulted or informed about government plans to develop the site.
On Monday Aroland chief Sonny Gagnon criticised Ford’s “misleading and incorrect” comments and called for a “proper assessment” of the project to protect wildlife, water and climate.
“Aroland does not in any way indicate . . . consent for mining in the Ring of Fire,” he said.
Ontario’s provincial legislature earlier this month passed bill 5 — dubbed the Unleashing the Economy Act — which aims to speed up large projects such as the Ring of Fire as part of Canada’s push to diversify its economy in the wake of US tariffs.
Last week Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government introduced wide-ranging economic legislation, known as the One Canadian Economy Act, that gives Ottawa broad powers to fast-track projects it identifies as in the national interest.
The prime minister mentioned the Ring of Fire as one of a “long list of projects that bring the country together, diversify our markets, make us more resilient, create good jobs and grow, have very good prospects of indigenous partnerships and beyond”.
He added cutting red-tape would accelerate infrastructure projects. Industry has long complained mining permits and approval processes cause lengthy delays to projects.
Luca Giacovazzi, chief executive of Perth, Australia-based Wyloo, which acquired mineral rights in the region four years ago, said the Ring of Fire site contains six or seven ore bodies that could be tapped as soon as 2030.
The project was the subject of a fierce bidding war in 2021 when Australian miners BHP and Wyloo, part of the billionaire iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest’s Tattarang operations, battled to buy out Canadian miner Noront, which had started developing the Eagle’s Nest mine in the Ring of Fire region.
Forrest compared the Ring of Fire’s potential to the Western Australian Pilbara area, which produces much of the world’s iron ore.
“What we’re seeing now is the right alignment between both the federal government and the provincial government to move forward,” Giacovazzi said.
Ford said Ontario has committed C$1bn (US$735mn) to building a road that would improve access to the Ring of Fire region, which can currently only be reached by plane.
“We have to make sure we get shovels in the ground and get the minerals out, and there’s nowhere else I want to ship them to than our closest allies and friends in the US,” he said.
But according to King, “Ford does not have blanket First Nations support for this”. He said Ontario’s first nation chiefs will meet later this month to discuss the project and “obviously, litigation would be one avenue”.
Ford said First Nations communities in the region have been offered a potential C$3bn equity stake in the project, which could bring much-needed jobs and income.
He called those who oppose the development “a bunch of hypocrites”.
