As far as I know Noront's done a better job sitting down with FNs. They don't like pipelines by the by.

Also the east/west route by Noront has only been proposed because of those 4 FNs. It's the social aspect of this route that is important and is attached to a cash flow nickel start. So it's not just one or the other.

I too think all of this can be in place by the time everyone agrees what to do with the chromite and the requirements that come along with that.

Better to have something to build on than to have theoretical models fought between stakeholders before anything gets done at all.

Let's not forget how long Environmental Assessments take especially for such a regionally-sized chromite project.