The Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario has become a key figure in the battle to control critical minerals, which experts say is the heart of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada.
While a remote Ontario peat bog may not be the stage that first comes to mind when picturing the geopolitical conflict, the critical minerals beneath it are essential to renewable energy and digital technology.
Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire is a crescent-shaped mineral deposit that has been eyed as a critical source for Ontario’s burgeoning electric vehicle battery industry.
U.S. President Donald Trump is now eyeing Canada’s rich mineral deposits as America can’t produce enough of its own, said Elizabeth Steyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Calgary.
The Ring of Fire contains minerals including nickel, chromium, palladium and platinum, said Steyn, who teaches a course on critical minerals, regulatory frameworks and geopolitics. These minerals are highly appealing to the U.S.
“They are important in terms of not only the energy transition, but the digital transition and also national security,” Steyn said.
As the trade war between Canada and the U.S. heats up, Trump’s choice of what to tariff shows how much the U.S. relies on Canadian critical minerals, she said.
“While the tariffs are at 25 per cent, energy is being assessed at 10 per cent and energy materials include critical minerals. Now that tells us a story, because if they didn’t really need them, they would have been tariffing them at 25 per cent as well,” said Steyn.
The growing ‘race’ for resources
Journalist Vince Beiser has dug into the critical minerals race in his new book, “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future.” Echoing former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Beiser said Trump’s threat to annex Canada is motivated by his desire for critical minerals.
“Canada is loaded with these critical metals that are going to be absolutely crucial for the next 20, 50, 100 years of human development,” Beiser said.
But these coveted minerals are, so far, only a promise of the Ring of Fire’s potential. The 5,000-square-kilometre area is a remote, swampy peatland about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. Without a connection to the provincial highway network, it’s only accessible by ice road in the winter or plane in the remaining months.
“It’s a long way between knowing there’s metals underground and getting them up above the ground and to market,” said Beiser.
The duty to consult
Potential development has faced pushback from some First Nations, which have previously said they haven’t been properly consulted and see it as a potential threat to their traditional ways of life.
There are also a number of open cases against the Ontario government over the duty to consult in northern Ontario’s mining sector, as well as a legal action over the province’s online claim staking program and its regulatory processes.
Local opposition to mining will likely make development difficult, said Steyn.
“I think the single biggest challenge is not so much a legal challenge, it’s the fact that they are facing significant community upset with the proposed development and until they have buy in from the surrounding communities, I do not see those projects going ahead,” she said.
Another Anishinaabe First Nation in Quebec had a recent, precedent-setting win in federal court that could raise the bar for consultation obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDRIP).
Even if it goes to appeal, this case “changes the regulatory landscape,” said Steyn.
“Everybody has been waiting to hear what exactly happens with UNDRIP, and I think a prospective developer would play it very riskily if they do not consult to that depth.”
