Just ask KWG Resources, which received good news from the U.S. Patent Office's International Searching Authority earlier this month. The office found that KWG's process for using natural gas and an accelerant, rather than a standard electric arc furnace, to process chromite is a novel one.

Vice-president of exploration and development Moe Lavigne said the idea could cut costs by more than half for its proposed operation. It could also have the potential to license the process to mines around the world but it hasn't had the chance to get the process out of the lab yet.

"We haven't tested it on chromites from around the world yet but we suspect that it'll be applicable to any chromite deposit on the planet," he said.

Typically an electric furnace needs to burn at around 1,700 C in order to separate chromite, made of chromium, iron and oxygen. KWG's process could do the same using natural gas at 1,200 C. That saves energy costs but also equipment costs by burning at a lower temperature.

"At 1,700 C just about everything melts," Lavigne said.

The footprint for the plant is also about a quarter of the size of an electric furnace like the one proposed by once KWG senior partner Cliffs Natural Resources. Electricity prices means a typical plant would likely be built in Quebec or Manitoba where prices are cheaper but natural gas is the same price across the country.

"Natural gas allows us to build the plant anywhere there is natural gas," he said.

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