【Ferro-alloys.com】Expect 2028 to be the year when the first truckloads of nickel concentrate will be rumbling out of the James Bay lowlands to market.

That was the best educated guess from Noront Resources CEO Alan Coutts on an approximate date when the Eagle’s Nest nickel mine in the Ring of Fire will go into production.

During a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce webinar on May 3, Coutts delivered an update to an online audience on the latest goings-on with the company and a basic primer on how Noront’s new Australian owners, Wyloo Metals, intend to approach development in Ontario’s Far North.

Wyloo's $616.9-million acquisition of Noront was finalized in early April.

Coutts emphasized it's "early days" in the relationship as Perth-headquartered Wyloo begins a thorough review of Noront's mineral assets in the Far North and all aspects of the company's downstream manufacturing plans and introduces itself to First Nation communities and influential politicians and business leaders.

The prize for Wyloo always has been the Eagle's Nest nickel, copper and platinum group metals project, the most mine-ready of all of Noront’s holdings.

Once estimated to have a 20-year mine life, its rich and open-ended potential is what drew Wyloo to beat out rival BHP in a bidding war for Noront last year.

The Ring of Fire is an emerging mining district 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. Similar in size and mineral richness to the Sudbury Basin, this area presents a potential boon to the Canadian economy that will finance generations of businesses and people for generations to come.

“This is the scale of development we’re talking about in the Ring of Fire,” said Coutts.

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Of the 26 significant mineral discoveries in the Ring of Fire, Noront has 22 of them. Of the 35 minerals deemed critical to the Canadian government, Noront possesses nine of them.

There are slew of other commodities, including its well-known chromite deposits, but also discoveries of gold, zinc, copper, iron, titanium, vanadium and silver.

But these are stranded mineral deposits with fly-in access only, unless a 300-kilometre road can be built to deliver these discoveries to market.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]