What is the Ring of Fire?

By: Saima Desai

This post is a part of our new report, Greenwashing the Ring of Fire: Indigenous Jurisdiction and Gaps in the EV Battery Supply Chain.

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In the far north of what’s currently known as Ontario, in an area covered by Treaty No. 9,  lies the Hudson Bay Lowlands, an area roughly the size of Germany speckled with ponds, lakes, and rivers. Over thousands of years, plants growing in the waterlogged earth would die, never fully decomposing and instead becoming part of a rich, spongy layer of peat. Local First Nations call it the “breathing lands,” referring to the immense amounts of carbon that the peatlands absorb from the air. Rare and threatened plants and animals call the lowlands home: caribou, wolverine, and lake sturgeon.

Underneath the peat, there are rumoured to be vast and valuable deposits of minerals: gold, diamonds, chromite, and nickel. This area was originally marked as the “Ring of Fire” by Noront mining executive Richard Nemis in 2007. Reportedly a lifelong Johnny Cash fan, Nemis was quoting from the song where Cash sings, “bound by wild desire / I fell into a ring of fire.” 

Initially, in Treaty No. 9, it was diamonds that were the subject of mining magnates’ wild desire; then, chromite, a key component of stainless steel. Now nickel, the less-glitzy of the minerals, is driving mining interest: in 2022 it was included in a list of 31 minerals that Canada considers “critical” for the transition toward a lower-carbon economy. This is because nickel—alongside lithium, cobalt, graphite, and manganese—is a key component in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. 

Canada has invested hugely in EVs, requiring 100 percent of new vehicles sold to be zero emission by 2035. The U.S., too, introduced the Inflation Reduction Act, which gives tax credits to those who purchase an EV if 40 percent of its battery’s minerals were mined or processed in “friendly” countries like Canada.

The federal and—particularly—Ontario governments are pursuing mining in the Ring of Fire, driven by the pressure to appear to act on climate change, restore manufacturing jobs to Ontario, and reduce their own and their U.S. allies’ reliance on Chinese and Russian minerals. 

Today, the conversation around the Ring of Fire is dominated by the Australian-owned mining company Wyloo (formerly known as Ring of Fire Metals and Noront Resources), which has pledged to build a first-of-its-kind net-zero emissions mine on one of the biggest nickel deposits in the area, called Eagle’s Nest. The neighbouring deposits—also owned by Wyloo—include gold and chromite. 

At Eagle’s Nest, the first mine that Wyloo hopes to build, the company promises a small surface footprint, tailings stored underground, carbon capture and storage, and water recycling, all powered by renewable energy. Mining, long associated with environmental destruction and dirty labour practices, is given a green gloss: it’s crucial for decarbonization, they say.

Fire An aerial view of the Attawapiskat River. Photo by Allan Lissner/Neskantaga First Nation.
An aerial view of the Attawapiskat River. Photo by Allan Lissner/Neskantaga First Nation.

But many of Wyloo’s promises are untested, and others are misleading. Plus, the company’s billionaire owner has a troubling track record in his dealings with Indigenous peoples in his home country of Australia., The reality on the ground is not as green as Wyloo would have it seem. 

This report examines greenwashing in the Ring of Fire in light of the Ontario government’s vision of a fully integrated domestic EV battery supply chain. When we talk about “greenwashing,” we include all public statements that are misleading consumers and the public about the environmental practices of a company, or the environmental benefits of a project or policy. Because humans are a part of the environment, we consider greenwashing to involve not only environmental dimensions, but social dimensions too.

Wyloo is involved in greenwashing, but they’re not the only ones. In Canada and Ontario, the push for critical mineral development and EV production is playing out within a broad greenwashing ecosystem, one that involves a network of state and corporate actors, lobbyists, NGOs, and consulting firms. These actors coordinate to secure social licence, i.e., “broad public support for resource development projects from affected communities, citizens, and stakeholders.” 

We focus on the greenwashing of Wyloo’s Eagle’s Nest mine because securing social licence to build that first mine is the key to opening up the entire region to development. As mining expert Joan Kuyek has said, Eagle’s Nest is a Trojan horse. However small its footprint, it opens the door on resource extraction in the lowlands: once a mining road is built to connect the mineral deposits to highways, a stream of mines will follow. There are currently over 31,000 mining claims registered in the Ring of Fire. Many of the mines that come after Eagle’s Nest will be bigger, dirtier, and more destructive.

Mining the Ring of Fire poses grave threats to the environment, and faces opposition from some of the First Nations whose homelands are at risk. The minerals are also buried beneath vast peat bogs, a major carbon sink which holds an estimated 35 billion tonnes of carbon. According to the Wildlands League, just 3 percent of the Ring of Fire area was developed, it would undo nearly all of the emissions reductions Canada has made from 2005 to 2021.

And the drive for critical minerals supposes a one-for-one replacement of combustion engine cars with electric vehicles, when a more important question for a truly just transition is: how do we enhance everyone’s mobility and connection, while mining less?