The Ring of Fire, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, is home to a 5,000-square-kilometre mineral deposit. The province’s plans include a $1-billion investment to build roads to access those deposits, but the project has been up in the air for years.
The Trudeau government is digging for intelligence on the role Canada's mining sector could play in providing the United States and other key trading partners with crucial minerals and metals — from cobalt to tellurium — considered building blocks of the new economy.