Map: Where is the Ring of Fire, anyway?

The Ring of Fire, the name given to a potentially vast mineral deposit in Northern Ontario near – well, not near anything, to tell the truth – raised the hopes of a cash-strapped Ontario government and resource companies hoping for a piece of the action, and bewilderment from pretty much everybody else.

(Global News’ Alan Carter got blank faces and awkward grins from Toronto passerby not long ago by asking them about it.)

Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines is bullish about the possibilities of the site, saying that it offers “one of the most promising development opportunities in Northern Ontario in perhaps a century.” The province has spent more than $278 million on exploration in the area to date, the ministry says. The site is rich in chromite – useful in making stainless steel – as well as zinc, nickel, copper and gold. The provincial government estimates the deposits as worth $60 billion.

Despite the hopes of government, development plans were set back in November when U.S.-based Cliffs Natural Resources pulled out of the project “given the uncertain timeline and risks associated with the development of necessary infrastructure to bring this project online.”

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So where is the Ring of Fire, anyway? Not all that near any recognizable reference point, if you’re not from northwestern Ontario.

More practical answers are: about 250 kilometres from Attawapiskat, which itself is accessible only by air or water, or about 280 kilometres from Nakina, a small community on the CN main line north of Geraldton. Nakina is the nearest point to the Ring of Fire that’s connected to the North American transportation network. (In theory, a road or railway could be built to the site from the Ontario Northland line west of Hearst, but that route is about 370 kilometres from the site as the crow flies.)

The site’s location is the most obvious challenge, and seems to be the key to the sticker-shock both levels of government have experienced.