“Noront Resources has delayed its Eagle’s Nest feasibility study to rethink a key element in the project – a proposed east-west transportation corridor – in light of a May 9 announcement that Cliffs Natural Resources is going to the next stage of its $3-billion Black Thor chromite proposal in Ontario’s Ring of Fire mineral zone.

In a presentation to the CPM Group Precious Metals Mining Investment Seminar in New York last week, Noront CEO Wes Hanson said the north-south access road proposed by Cliffs would provide his company with a shorter, cheaper route out of the remote Ring of Fire mineral zone.

He said Noront could reduce its development costs and increase return on its nickel-copper-platinum group prospect by collaborating on the north-south route with Cliffs and the Ontario government, which indicated its support for the Cliffs proposal in a linked May 9 announcement.

Noront pulled back its feasibility study, which it had hoped to have finalized by now, to factor in costings for that north-south corridor proposal, he said. The revised scenario will also incorporate a shared airstrip and a shared accommodation complex that would be operated by an Aboriginal provider.

Hanson acknowledged that the Cliffs-Ontario government announcement, which featured the north-south all-weather access road and a Sudbury-area ferrochrome processing facility, has sparked intense negative response from northwestern First Nations and municipalities, including a defiant rejection of the north-south road proposal from Neskantaga First Nation.

That reaction will have to be worked through, he said, and communications will have to be undertaken to inform all Ring of Fire First Nations of the potential benefits of a revised plan ….”