Frank Smeenk's KWG Resources Inc. (KWG), unchanged at four cents on 49,000 shares, says a report by the United States Patent Office "is a major step forward" for the company, which hopes to extract chromite using natural gas, a carbon reductant and a catalyst formulation. It will also need a lot of cash, starting with another $2.2-milllion to fulfill its exploration requirement on the Black Horse chromite deposit in the Ring of Fire district of Northern Ontario. In May, KWG put Black Horse at 77.9 million tonnes inferred of 35.3 per cent chromium oxide. Unfortunately, Black Horse, KWG's other chromium projects and its daydream of building a billion-dollar railroad to the Ring of Fire district took a major step backward this fall, when Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., the company holding most of the chromite assets in the area, said it has "zero hope" that the project will be developed soon. In fact, Cliffs now doubts it will be developed for decades to come and does not think it can even sell its project, in the near future at least. Despite Cliffs' pessimism, the unsinkable Mr. Smeenk is promoting full speed ahead.