'Extremely rare' First Nation-owned mine in Manitoba may be more viable than Ontario's Ring of Fire: expert

Jim Rondeau, a former Manitoba NDP cabinet minister who is now the major projects director for Norway House, says the project has been rebranded as a critical minerals project, after the discovery of magnesium and other platinum-group metals, such as rhodium, platinum and palladium.

"Instead of a nickel project, we found out that we had a treasure chest of all sorts of critical minerals and very obscure minerals that really makes the project much more valuable, and unbelievably more attractive to produce," Rondeau said.

An assessment of the mining site found 60 metres of dolomite rock that contains what he says is a significant amount of pure magnesium.