Hoping to revive the Ring of Fire, Ontario is seeking private and public partners — especially the federal government — in a development corporation to build about $2 billion of roads and mining infrastructure.

The money is needed to open up the vast northwestern Ontario zone rich in mineral deposits such as chromite, a key ingredient in stainless steel, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Ontario is prepared to invest a “substantial” but undisclosed sum in the project and wants Ottawa to match it to prepare the zone for mining, which is expected to be worth about $60 billion, said the premier.

Estimated costs are up to $1 billion for “industrial infrastructure” and $1.25 billion for roads.

“We expect your government to come to the table,” Wynne wrote Harper, citing previous federal investments in the Alberta oilsands, hydroelectric development at Churchill Falls in Labrador and a British Columbia transmission line.

The federal government reiterated its willingness to collaborate on the Ring of Fire, but Greg Rickford — minister of state for northern Ontario economic development — told the Star he had no advance notice of Wynne’s “vague” request.

“We’re not saying yes or no to it,” Rickford added. “We’ve been very clear on what issues are exclusively provincial.”

Development of the 4,000-square-kilometre area, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, hit a snag in June.

That’s when the biggest developer, U.S.-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., called a halt to an environmental assessment, putting in jeopardy its plan to open a mine in 2016.

There has also been a delay in building a road into the area.

Cliffs, which planned to build a massive smelter near Sudbury, blamed delays in approving terms of reference for the environmental assessment and sources said failure to lock down a favourable long-term price for electricity was one of several other snags.

New Democrat MPP Michael Mantha (Algoma-Manitoulin) said government action to co-ordinate development of the Ring of Fire, long touted by the Liberal government as a boon for northern jobs, was long overdue.

“They’ve wasted enough time,” said Mantha, his party’s mines critic, skeptical that Friday’s announcement was a public relations exercise.

“The biggest question we have is getting the infrastructure developed and electricity cost.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has said he would speed up development of the Ring of Fire, which is 300 kilometres from the nearest railway line.

Wynne said other partners in the development corporation could include mining companies and First Nations, represented in negotiations with the province by former Liberal MP and one-time NDP premier Bob Rae.

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“Those who want to be truly involved in the project, we think, will make their intentions known quickly,” Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle told a news conference in Thunder Bay.

“The bottom line is we need to move forward in bringing all the partners together. Decisions need to be made. We, obviously, are keen to drive this process forward.”

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