Lowboy, you are correct, there have been two relevant News Releases about smelting ROF chromite bulk samples. The first, from KWG, relates to Big Daddy ore and is scheduled for 'February'. The second, more recent NR, relates to ore supplied by CLF apparently from Black Thor, and the first pour was 1st February, so the actual work began before February and continued after Feb 1st.

Here is the text of the more recent NR

Successful First Tap of Ferrochrome from Ring of Fire ‘Black Thor’ Chromite Deposit at XPS facility using a new DC Pilot Test Furnace
On the morning of February 1, 2012, the first ferrochrome alloy was tapped from a new DC pilot test furnace at the Xstrata Process Support (XPS) Centre (www.myxps.ca), in Falconbridge, Ontario.
This is the very first continuous smelting of ‘Ring of Fire’ chromite ore in Canada‛, says Arthur Barnes, Consulting Metallurgist, XPS.
The ore tested is from the ‘Black Thor’ deposit, and the work is being performed under contract for Cliffs Natural Resources (www.cliffsnaturalresources.com), who through its Canadian subsidiary, Cliffs Chromite Ontario Inc., is the owner and currently developing the deposit located in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario.
Cliffs is excited about developing this smelting test capability in Canada instead of having to ship samples overseas‛, stated Richard Fink, Cliffs’ Vice-President – Technology, Global Ferroalloys.
The experienced team at XPS is working closely with Cliffs to test the ore using best practice processing and environmentally sustainable technology to further define and validate the design parameters for Cliffs’ full scale plant.
‚This is a positive development in the story of Chromite in Canada‛, says Arthur Barnes, ‚and we are proud to be supporting this exciting work for Cliffs with our experienced team at XPS.‛
With the support of Cliffs, the pilot scale furnace is now fully operational and producing larger scale test results. This complements similar work already underway for furnace design, commissioning, training and operation.
‚Congratulations to our dedicated team at XPS for achieving this milestone, safely, without any major incident‛, says Dominic Fragomeni, Director at XPS. ‚We look forward to continuing our support of Cliffs in the development of this significant deposit for Northern Ontario and Canada.‛

I assume that after completion of the tests on B.T. ore, the same tests will be done on B.D. ore, so that a full comparison can be made.

They will try different methods to find the best - temperatures, flux, particle size etc

CLF will want to know about both orebodies before deciding where to mine.