Category: Community News

At the beginning of March, Ring of Fire Metals began a new chapter in our journey when our new CEO, Kristan Straub, joined the team

Kristan attributes much of his love for the outdoors and learning to his maternal grandparents, Arthur (Art) and Eva Solomon. Art Solomon was an internationally recognized spiritual and social teacher to both Canada’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Art was an artisan and a craftsman, having a strong passion for supporting and empowering Indigenous people. As a result of his work in Northern Ontario, a member of Kasabonika gave Art the name Kesheyanakwan (meaning Fast Moving Cloud) when he connected the community’s crafts to southern and international markets enabling them to receive full value for their work. Kristan spent most of his childhood holiday time with his grandparents learning the importance of being a steward of the land and its people.

Kristan studied geology and his appetite for learning led him on many adventures across the world. From early grass roots exploration in Mongolia and the High Arctic of Canada, to project development in Tanzania and Sudbury, to operations management in the South Pacific and Nunavik region of Northern Quebec. His interest in learning more about operations and problem solving led him to shift into operations management, where he had the opportunity to focus on leadership, people growth and mentorship and environmental stewardship. Working in remote locations with Indigenous communities around the world led Kristan to this role. Kristan’s top priority has always been deeply rooted in building trust and relationship building, which were priorities important to Ring of Fire Metals when filling the new CEO role.

“My role is to empower stakeholders and employees to tackle the unknown, create meaningful change and champion the growth of our business through the development of the Eagle’s Nest Project and the infrastructure corridor. Building capacity for new and innovative operations begins with building the capacity of people. We have a responsibility to ensure that this work is done safely with care, respect, integrity and trust. I’m looking forward to our shared work delivering results for local communities and stakeholders and I am committed to doing this in an open, honest and transparent manner.” – Kristan Straub

We are excited that exploration work will be ramping up at Esker Site this winter and spring.

The program includes a number of geophysical surveys, which are non-invasive ways of imaging what is underground and a drilling program to test targets. The work we are doing includes ground MT (Magnetotellurics), ground gravity, and ground EM (electromagnetics) surveys.

So, what do these surveys do? Ground MT surveys measure electric and magnetic fields under the ground which may indicate potential nickel targets. They rely on naturally occurring sources of energy, like lightning storms and solar flares, as the source of energy. Ground EM surveys measure the conductivity of rock under the ground using a generator to create an electromagnetic field which penetrates the ground.  Ground gravity surveys measure differences in density in rock to help identify areas which may indicate nickel targets, without disturbing the ground.

If the MT, EM or gravity surveys pick up something significant, further testing can be done using a diamond drill, which drills into the ground to collect a tube of rock (about as wide as a pop can) which is then analysed by RoF Metals geologists looking for minerals which may lead to a nickel discovery.

Our MT surveys will cover the Eagle’s Nest nickel deposit and the Blue Jay nickel occurrence with the hope of identifying new areas to drill near these targets. Drilling will take place at Blue Jay in February. Drilling around Esker to install water wells in January will allow us to test for the presence and quality of water for future development at Eagle’s Nest. In addition to our exploration programs, we’re planning on installing fuel bladders at Esker and bringing in mobile equipment (snowmobiles and ATVs) to facilitate our work at site and in the field. The fuel bladder system will allow us to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing the amount of flights needed to transport fuel to site, as well as reduce the health and safety risk of manually handling heavy fuel drums.

Ring of Fire Metals is the new name of Noront Resources. In April 2022, Wyloo Metals became our parent company.

Wyloo is based in Perth, Western Australia and has other activities in both Canada and Australia focusing on minerals that help the transition to a low-carbon future. This is important as decarbonization is needed to reduce greenhouse emissions and reduce climate change and global warming. A number of the Wyloo team members have visited our Toronto, Thunder Bay and Esker Site locations to get to know our team over the past few months – they even got to experience the minus forty weather at Esker this past November!

Though we work in different climates, terrains and time zones, we share the common goal of developing the next generation of mines, in partnership with local communities, that will produce the raw materials needed for a clean and sustainable future. Since the takeover, Ring of Fire Metals has reopened Esker, grown our team at all operating locations, partnered with Outland Youth Employment Services (OYEP) and has signed an MOU with Webequie First Nation, a significant and exciting milestone. We are continuing towards our goals with excitement as we embrace the journey towards responsibly developing the Ring of Fire.