Ed,

Agreed totally. NOT has Ni and other stuff (PGM) and the Eagle project is in an advance stage. IMO, NOT can do it alone, even without government help. If I were Alan Coutts I would just plough ahead using the ice roads to transport the equipment up to prepare for the mine. If the government is too slow to assist with building the EW road to Webequie that would be fine. Profit could still be made with stockpiling Ni concentrate for shipping south using the ice roads. If there is no power transmission to Webequie and beyond (i.e. to the RoF) then that would be fine as well. The old fashioned way of using diesel generators would be available, which would cost a bit more, but should be manageable.

A few things are worth mentioning for discussion purposes:

- Building and operating Eagle mine should be doable, as soon as permits are received from the government (currently, put on hold pending resolution of some other issues which may not be part of the mining application, e.g. social problems in northern communities...this is government and local people's reaponsibility). NOT operation in the RoF would provide benefits for nearby communities which may help living conditions, etc..., but it is not NOT responsibility to solve these problems before building the mine

- How to get the stuff out: For DeBeers it's easy. A Cessna or a helicopter could lift a person or more with backpacks of diamonds out of of Victor mine in a jiffy, but Ni concentrate is a lot bulkier, but not as bad as chromite. However, one option would be to stockpile and truck it out on ice roads during the winter.

- Other method of hauling out: A Hercules can lift ~30 tonnes (one Herc would cost about $30M to purchase, a used one could be cheaper, but it would be simpler to rent from First Air). At first glance, the hauling by Hercules would be expensive, but how expensive would it be, is the cost prohibitive, anyone knows?

- Any other economical and practical way for hauling out the stuff?

- Perhaps, NOT should look at a cheaper method to process the concentrate to higher grades using gas powered technique (like the KWG process for chromite). If the cost of this on-site "smelter" is not too high then the concentrate tonnage would be reduced significantly. May be, the same on-site gas-powered smelter could be shared, one stream for Ni the other for chromite. On-site smelter would reduce the chromite tonnage for hauling out as well.

What would be the cost comparison of an on-site gas-powered smelter compared to a slurry pipeline (say, ~$500M for a 300km pipeline) with supporting facility ($???) such as water supply and dryer at the other end? Gas smelter needs natural gas, so a gas pipeline would be needed, or LNG could be air-lifted to the RoF by Hercules (a fan of Herc?), or trucked up during the winter.

Bottom line: NOT could do it alone without anybody's help using the existing ice roads and diesel genes, as long as it does not get "blocked" by political interferrence.

Just speculating folks.

goldhunter