The private road CLF proposed for monster trucks would cost CLF $600M. Anther $600M is expected to come from the Ontario Government, i.e. total cost is ~$1.2B.

No, I believe this is incorrect. I don't blame anyone for misunderstanding as both Cliffs and Ontario did not want the public to know the cost details.

First, let's understand that the $600M that Cliff's failed to back up with any public cost analysis, is the cost for their entire proposed ITS (Intergrated Transport System), of which, Ontario would have mostly paid. Noront was going to pay part too, as we see from the Ministry's letter.

Please show me where it is publicly written that the "other $600M" from Ontario for which you talk about is for Ontario/Cliff's north south all-weather toll road. Please understand Cliffs never said it would cost $1.2B to build the road. They said $600M total.

Of course, without documented figures, it's had been anyone's guess except Cliffs and the Ontario Liberal government.

Back in April of 2012, the then Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne, former minister of transportation and minister of municipal affairs and housing, said she was working directly with other ministries to resolve issues, address concerns and reach agreements to move [Cliffs] project forward to meet the interests of all involved. "Negotiations are ongoing that aren’t public and can’t be talked about," she said.

So pretty please, read the following Reuters article. There are so many other examples of press releases and news articles at the time with the same figures.

The costs were $1.800 + $800M + $150M + $600M = $3.35M

It is only through careful examination of the Tetratech Road Rail Trade-off study compared to Ontario's secret deal with Cliff, could any meaningful comparison and discussion take place. (Just as an example, Cliffs proposal had single lane bridges with automated traffic signal systems for the large trucks with on board signal guidance.)

Canada chromite project costs triple: Cliffs Natural Resources

Thu Feb 16, 2012

(Reuters) - The cost of developing what may be the largest chromite deposit in North America has tripled from the original $1 billion estimate, a major participant, Cliffs Natural Resources, said on Thursday.

"Initially we did go out with a billion-dollar price tag for this project," said Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Joseph Carrabba.

"(Now) We're in about the $3.3 billion range," he told Wall Street analysts during a conference call, when asked about the status of the Black Thor chromite deposit Cliffs is developing in northern Canada.

Carrabba said the estimate had risen mainly because road construction in the remote Ontario location had not been included in the original estimate.

He said there had been a "sharpening of the estimate" as the project moves through the pre-feasibility stage.

"The transportation and the road has gotten more expensive in this segment than we expected and everything else is falling in line with that."

Cleveland-based Cliffs controls three large chromite deposits in the "Ring of Fire" region of northern Ontario with production at its wholly-owned project, Black Thor, slated to begin in late 2015 or early 2016.

Cliffs originally projected it would produce 600,000 tons of ferrochrome annually. The company now expects to produce 1 million tons of export chromite ore concentrate which is used to make stainless steel and other alloys, in addition to the original 600,000 tons of ferrochrome.

In January, Cliffs said it was budgeting $150 million for mine development, $800 million for a concentrating plant and $1.8 billion for a ferrochrome processing facility.

An integrated transportation system, including an all-weather surface road, will cost an additional $600 million, although part of that cost would be borne by the Ontario provincial government and other industry participants.

Why would any of this "water under the bridge" be important?

It would not be unless one understood what was happening behind closed doors. The Ontario Liberals were shutting down the ONTC rail while making private deals with Cliffs to share revenue on a toll truck road while allowing Cliffs to take samples of CCC's key ITS corridor mining claims. Ontario instructed the Attorney General to influence the divisional court to overturn the Mining Commissioner's easement decision.