BananaB

Thanks for your feed back. I am aware of the draft submission has been made for consideration under the coordinated Prov and Fed EA review, but there seems to be no feedback (yet) from the government for a final submission from NOT. There are general statements from NOT about less environmental impact from the proposed road since it would follow the existing winter road, but it seems that NOT is treating the road as part of the Eagle mine project, hence it has to wait for comments on the entire project before it can proceed with final submission (for the entire project).

Question for pondering: Why not treat the road separately, i.e. with the primary function for serving the northern FN communities. and the secondary function would be to get the mining supplies to the mine initially, and later to truck the Ni concentrate out. This sounds noble, but that would help "selling" the road project. In other work get going with the EA for the road first, and leave the mine site review at the mercy of the review process.

With the support of the FN communities (at least 4 of them, as I recall) it should get fast tracked treatment from the governments. A proposal of a public toll road (fully paid by NOT) would trigger a lively debate on the political levels. This debate may trigger government proposal for cost sharing?

Perhaps, this is naive thinking, but different opinions would be welcome.

Note: This E-W road is relevant to KWG as well, since it can certainly use this road for the initial development of its own (chromite) mine. The alternate E-W road proposed by KWG could perhap follow the same strategy, since at least this would serve more than 2 FN communities (the outspoken Marten Falls and Eabametoong, plus a 3rd one, in the middle to the N-W, which I don't have the name handy). Similarly, NOT ccould also use this road, since all E-W roads (NOT's or KWG's Alternate) seem to lead to Rome (oops the RoF). Either road is fine, so there is no need to fight. My guess: Both would be built, question is which one will be the first.

goldhunter