Le Penseur,

Nicely put. A thorough and stand-alone post on the topic.

The current situation where CLF is fighting for their own survival against the onslaught of Casablanca, the recent huge loss from its operation would give Casablanca more ammunition to fire at CLF BoD (incompetence?). This would also give the current Liberal government a way out not to give the $600M for building a NS private super highway for CLF as reportedly promised by the former Premier McGuinty.

So, Premier Wynne could stand up to say that due to the fact that

- CLF elected to postpone BT project Indefinitely (see their latest Corporate Presentation); - The clear-cut decision by the Lands Commisioner to reject CLF application for an easement (to build the private super highway -- no public component) over the KWG legitimate claims;

- The subsidy for electricity requested by CLF proposed arc furnace (huge cost in the long run for the Prov, could be billions);

- Ontario may not have enough electrical power to provide for the operation of the arc furnace (some mines around the area, Thunder Bay?, had to shut down due to shortage of electricity);

- The alternative proposed by KWG: The fully-integrated low cost plan (BH deposit, plus 30% BD; jointly (with Northland) proposed railroad on the NS corridor; a more economical natural gas-power conversion process (at some 40% of the cost using electricity -- and no subsidy would be required). The gas furnace could serve other companies and the NS railroad (and a small service road) are beneficial to other companies as well.

- Plus other reasons politicians can dream up. (Note: one key thing the government want to avoid is a lawsuit (during a potential election period) from KWG if the government is seen to have a favourable treatment for CLF and take away the claims from KWG to build a private super highway for monster trucks only. Remember that Frank is a lawyer, and he has made many excellent moves so far).

Looks like a royal flush?

goldhunter