Accessing Canada's Ring of Fire

In Northern Ontario, a 150-square-kilometre section of the James Bay Lowlands is referred to as the “Ring of Fire.” It’s a mineral-rich area known for high-grade deposits of gold, copper, nickel, zinc, chromite and palladium. But accessing the area and transporting heavy mining loads from it is complicated by super-saturated soils which some engineers compare to the soils in Florida’s Everglades. Geosynthetic support systems, such as geotextiles (which are used in road-building over soft soils like peat). Engineers are evaluating numerous approaches now.