TORONTO – Mining – KWG Resources Inc. reports, “The hearing of an application to The Mining and Lands Commissioner of Ontario that commenced on Monday February 4th, was concluded last Thursday afternoon with the tribunal reserving its decision in order to review and consider the evidence and arguments put before it during the two-week hearing”.

KWG Resources – Hearing Reverses Decision

The application seeks an Order that the Minister of Natural Resources may grant an easement under the Public Lands Act for the construction of a road by a subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. over mining claims recorded in the name of Canada Chrome Corporation (“CCC”), a subsidiary of KWG Resources Inc. CCC has refused to consent to the grant pursuant to section 51 of the Mining Act.

The Mining and Lands Commission reported, “This matter lends itself to confusion and unnecessary complication because a numbered company (its parent company being Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.) is on the record as applying to the MNR for disposition under the Public Lands Act.  In actual fact, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. wrote to the Ministry of Natural Resources on May 31, 2011 asking to have an easement granted to the numbered company to permit the construction of a road.  The letter itself is an exhibit in an affidavit filed by counsel for Cliffs in the main hearing (the section 51 hearing).  The letter writer does not distinguish who will build the road or who will maintain it or anything of that nature.  Nor is there any mention of KWG Resources Inc. or Canada Chrome Corporation in the letter.  The letter writer does ask the Ministry to keep the request confidential and not discuss the request outside the Ministry”.

“The holder of the mining claims is a company formed for the purpose of supporting exploration and development of the Big Daddy Deposit, namely Canada Chrome Corporation.  The parties involved in the section 51 hearing before this tribunal are the numbered company and Canada Chrome Corporation.  Based on the materials (including affidavits) that have been filed, the parties actually engaged in the seeking of consent and refusing that consent are Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and KWG Resources Inc. respectively.  Whether this makes any difference in the decision to be made regarding settlement privilege will be dealt with below.  Suffice to say, that up to this point, the parties and the tribunal have been referring to Cliffs in place of the numbered company for ease of reference.  Also, while Canada Chrome is the respondent in the section 51 hearing, there seems to have been no difficulty in referring to its parent company, KWG Resources Inc. from time to time.  The practice of referring to either the actual parties or their parent companies will continue unless one of the parties registers an objection”.

Ring of Fire Chromite Project

On May 9, 2012, Cliffs Natural Resources moved the Ring of Fire Chromite project to the feasibility stage.

In a media statement Cliffs said, “Before Cliffs can make a final decision on the project in its entirety, the Company must receive provincial and federal environmental assessment approvals, negotiate mutually acceptable agreements with affected First Nations communities, work with governments to address the lack of infrastructure in the Ring of Fire and complete its commercial and technical feasibility studies”.

“We will continue our work to meet all of the requirements of the environmental assessment process as well as the expectations of the First Nations and local communities, especially with regards to the social, environmental, and economic performance of this project should it proceed,” said Boor.

Boor added, “We are very excited about the potential impact of this project for all of Northern Ontario. Assuming it goes ahead, our project has sufficient scale to justify infrastructure investments with the potential to connect remote communities with more populous municipalities, opening up the Ring of Fire to other responsible mining investments.”