Ring of Fire in 1929; a magnitude 8.1 in 1949 (Canada's largest recorded earthquake); and a magnitude 7.4 in 1970. The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics: the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates. The eastern section of the ring is the result of the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate being subducted beneath the westward-moving South American Plate. The Cocos Plate is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate, in Central America. A portion of the Pacific Plate and the small Juan de Fuca Plate are being subducted beneath the North American Plate. Along the northern portion, the northwestward-moving
Ring of Fire (Northern Ontario) that will spin-off jobs and economic activity for generations". In May 2012, Cliffs Natural Resources announced its intention of investing $3.3-billion in Northern Ontario's Ring of Fire region, which would include a chromite mine, a transportation corridor and a smelter in Sudbury, Ontario. Cliffs initially invested $550-million to acquire and begin development. By 2013, Cliffs had suspended the project "after numerous delays and difficult discussions with the province [of Ontario] and the First Nations communities". Cliffs sold its assets to the smaller Canadian company, Noront Resources Ltd. for USD20 million. In February 2013, KWG Resources, a Toronto-based junior miner, released