Thank you for having me here. I'm the president of KWG Resources, which is one of the two junior exploration companies that are still left trying to develop the Ring of Fire.
Canada's oil sands are located deep inside desolate territories inhabited mainly by indigenous people. The oil sands are valued at better than $2 trillion. When the price of oil collapsed recently, so did the Canadian dollar.
Environmental impacts are a major concern for the development of the oil sands. Industry and governments have spent in excess of $100 billion in developing the oil sands, and they are projected to contribute to the Canadian economy for the next 170 years.
Now, Canada also has the rich mineral reserves of the Ring of Fire, which is similarly located deep inside desolate territories inhabited mainly by indigenous people. They live in isolated communities on the periphery of the uninhabitable James Bay lowlands, which are only accessible by winter roads. The Ring of Fire's development could be the catalyst that invites these first nations to be part of the fabric of our society.
The major mineral in the Ring of Fire is chromite. We estimate that there is as much as $600-billion worth of chromite buried there. Industry and government have thus far spent only about $1 billion in developing the Ring of Fire. However, I believe that development of the Ring of Fire can be the next large and major driver of the Canadian economy. I estimate that it could add 2% to our GDP, or $35 billion annually, for each of the next hundred years and probably beyond. How so? Well, about two-thirds of the world's chrome is sold to the Chinese, who produce about two-thirds of the globe's stainless steel. Only a few months ago, we paid for a contingent of nine Chinese engineers to visit the Ring of Fire for a feasibility study to build and finance, in China, railroad access to the Ring of Fire.
This area of the Canadian north is a large part of a hemispheric ecosystem above the 50th parallel, which contains one third of the planet's trees. They filter our carbon emissions. Peatlands, such as those hosting the Ring of Fire, are in fact the most efficient carbon sinks in the world. On the other hand, China and its steel industries have been acknowledged as major polluters of the atmosphere. However, they are working hard to clean up their act. This past February they signed a joint declaration with Canada on a clean technology co-operation agreement. Canada, mainly in the north, is a generator of substantial carbon credits, and China has an obligation to the world to balance its pollution with carbon credits.
The Ring of Fire can clearly be developed, in co-operation with the 24,000 indigenous people of the northern communities of Hudson Bay, by using clean technology. Alternatively, we can do it like we always have: using old technology and old transportation methods, all of which contribute to global warming, interfering with the delicate ecosystem of what today is pristine topography.
Elon Musk was born to a Regina native mother and attended Queen's University in Kingston before this Canadian export moved to Silicon Valley to eventually found Tesla, and now SpaceX, while continuing to try to make an ecological difference in the world. Our company developed a clean technology for the beneficiation of chromite using natural gas, which is up to 80% more environmentally friendly than current electric arc technology. The CANMET lab of Natural Resources Canada is currently testing our technology and doing excellent work with remarkable results. Commercializing this process will enable Canada to be the world's lowest-cost producer of ferrochrome.
The Ring of Fire needs $3 billion in financing for development, mainly for transportation assets for an ecologically friendly thoroughfare through the tundra to the rail connections in the south. So the stage is set. President Xi of China needs our chrome and he needs our carbon credits. Our Prime Minister and government have obligations to preserve the environment, obligations to our indigenous peoples, and you all are pledged to continue Canada's growth and prosperity.
I ask you, therefore, to entreat Prime Minister Trudeau to present to President Xi an elegant solution, which can impact Canada for the next 100 years. China will buy chrome from the Ring of Fire over a 100-year buying program. Such a commitment from China will thus finance the total development of the Ring of Fire, and we will give China chrome and carbon credits in exchange. China and Canada will win much international attention for such a trade.
Now back to Elon Musk. KWG is working with Elon, through one of his incubators, on a possible ground-breaking solution for transport of the ore and people to and from the Ring of Fire. We call it the Ring of Fire hyperlink project. The Government of Canada is supporting, according to the press, a Hyperloop called TransPod to be built between Toronto and Montreal. Think of the old department store pneumatic vacuum tube that used to deliver invoices, and then instead imagine ore and people in those capsules.
Toronto Life magazine says that in 50 years the city will have 13 million people, and a Hyperloop will deliver them to Montreal in 30 minutes. I would contend, though, that we should look after our obligations to the indigenous people first. Only 36% of them are graduating from high school. We would propose that a most elegant, efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly use of Hyperloop technology is to build a hyperlink from the Ring of Fire to Nakina in northern Ontario.
As an ancillary to bringing out the chromite, it would create jobs and an ecotourism that couldn't possibly exist except for this kind of game-changing infrastructure technology. Of course, this requires a trade-off study as an alternative to our China railway current feasibility study for the building and financing of a traditional railroad.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think I've answered your questions. I've defined for you a growth strategy for 100 years that has the potential of the Alberta oil sands and will contribute at least $35 billion in GDP growth and a cumulative $3.5 trillion in long-term economic activity, in my opinion. I've defined the leverage that we have in controlling the exclusive and giant source of the only chromite in the western hemisphere. And China needs our resource. We believe they are willing and anxious for Canada's co-operation to allow them to buy chrome and so finance it. We believe Prime Minister Trudeau only has to ask for the order.
Mr. Chairman, you and I share a friendship with a stockbroker, and that's their rule number one: you have to ask for the order. I think we are at a situation in the relationship between our countries where Prime Minister Trudeau only has to ask for the order.
I've defined for you two technologies with dramatically positive environmental impacts that will deliver to China and Canada global admiration for using clean technology to develop a new mineral supply source. I've given you a program that will benefit the indigenous people, who we've isolated in these remote territories, and which are now environmentally critical to the survival of the planet.
In closing, I would ask you to perhaps bring me back with all of the scientists, executives, and financiers who would like to participate in this kind of development of the Ring of Fire, together with the leaders of the indigenous communities in the surrounding James Bay lowlands. Then let's have a rendezvous and talk it all out. I can tell you most emphatically that they are all very, very willing. They just need to know that you care. We would hope that the Prime Minister would sit in on our rendezvous. We commit to you to also invite native son Elon Musk.
Thank you.