Chauncey, that phrase "Blackbird is a pipeline project" on slide 13 of the lastes Corporate Presetation is quite confusing for many people, especially they proposed a pipeline to carry Ni concentrates from the site to Webequie Junction. I would tend to read this as "Blackbird is a project in an early stage, i.e. in NOT work pipeline". This is loose talk and should be rephrased to avoid confusion. I have sent an e-mail asking for a confirmation, but not sure how fast their response is to e-mail (my first e-mail to them).

The reason I discount the slurry pipeline for chromite is because:

- with Ni the volume compression ratio is quite significant when they produce Ni concentrate (say from 1.5% ore to 10% Ni concentrate. This factor of 6 would reduce the pipe size and the pumping power. The slurry when it comes out at the other end of the pipe will need to be de-water and dried. The returned water would be pumped back to be recycled. The less water used the better, since they will score points with the environmental folks.

- With chromite, the practice, I presume, is not to produce high % concentrate (any process engineers in the house?). If the quality of ore is high enough to be qualified as DSO then they would prefer to transport it out directly from the site via trucks and rail to Sudbury for smelting. They can stockpile ore at Weberquie Junction via ice road and pick up the journey with the proposed all-season road.

- Also, as I understand it (again any process engineers in the house) chromite because of its bulk is not economical the be transport by pipeline (much bigger pipe, pumps, return pipe to recycle the water, pumping power (hence larger generators), i.e. teh scale is many fold larger, in addion to "chromite is abrasive/corrosive?" hence not suitable to be transport in slurry pipe.

Just my take, feel free to correct if anyone has more reliable info.

BTW, if you are in the Toronto area (I am not, long distance charge), perhaps you could give NOT a call to check all this out?

goldhunter