TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Noront Resources, the proponent of what could possibly be one of the first projects to get off the ground in Ontario’s prospective Ring of Fire mining district, has launched an appeal to the province’s mining and lands commissioner to set aside the finding of the Provincial Mining Recorder that rival KWG Resources is the first to stake two 16-unit claims when they came open on the morning of June 17, 2011.

KWG on Wednesday said it was on Tuesday served with a notice of Noront’s appeal.

The two claims were next to the southern two claims of Fancamp Exploration’s Koper Lake claims, where KWG is assessing the economic potential of the Black Horse chromite deposit under an option agreement with Bold Ventures and Fancamp. Noront is developing the Eagle's Nest nickel/copper/platinum/palladium deposit.

"Koper Lake is an important amphibious aircraft facility for the Ring of Fire and the area used for landing and docking is within the eastern boundary of these claims. In the past, our exploration crews have been blockaded there, or embargoed from landing there, or [have] been levied substantial landing fees,” said KWG president Frank Smeenk.

He stressed that the firm believed that this was a critical part of the area's transportation assets and should be operated as a public facility, from which the concept sprang of a federally sponsored port authority.

“Accordingly, we are hopeful that the Provincial Mining Recorder's order will be upheld so that we can now assess the mineral potential of these claims and add their surface endowments to an integrated transportation network for the area,” Smeenk stated.

KWG’s proposed ‘Northland Development Corporation Act’ Bill, which it distributed to each candidate during the recent Ontario election campaign, contemplated this. “We hope that those candidates who are now members of the legislature will encourage their Cabinet colleagues to adopt the Bill."

KWG has a 30% interest in the Big Daddy chromite deposit and the right to earn 80% of the Black Horse chromite deposit where resources were being defined.

The company has also acquired interests in provisional patents, including a method to directly reduce chromite to iron and chrome metals using natural gas. KWG also owns 100% of Canada Chrome Corporation, which has staked claims and conducted a $15-million surveying and soil testing programme for the engineering and construction of a railroad to the Ring of Fire from Exton, Ontario.