MD,

"As an investor, I'd say that ANY way of getting significant amounts of ore out of the Ring is worth looking at."...MD

True, especially for chromite (but NOT would use it to transport Ni concentrates if the RR is available...a lot cheaper, and environmental more friendly than trucking). The need to get the goods out of the RoF was one of the reasons CLF used to justify its decision to pull out (real reason: CLF has no money to continue the BT $3.3B project). So, any road and railline would do. It does not matter whether it's the NOT or KWG Alternate EW road, or the EW (extension from Moosonee) or NS (esker route) railline.

After the study with the $3/4M grant, the FNs may come back with a modified version for the EW road which could be a cross between NOT and KWG. It does not matter, as long as something get built to assist the preparation of minining activities (to bring heavy equipment and supplies to the construction camps).

As far as the RR is concerned, a cursory inspection, based on some key items, would seem to favour the NS route. The EW route can be done later as another option to get the chromite concentrates to a sea port such as the Port of Moosonee.

- Esker: more solid footing for the rail bed. While the EW (north shore route from Moosonee) is on swampy soggy terrain which would require larger amount of aggregates, including large boulders, to provide a solid footing equivalent to an already compacted esker.

- The NS route is more direct and shorter than the EW route with 2 FNs communities on both sides (Ebametoong and Marten Fall). Note that the KWG Alternate EW road would link the other 4 FN communities to the entire road RR network shown in KWG map below.

http://www.kwgresources.com/_resources/photogallery/2014pdac/Road_Alternatives-PDAC.jpg

- NS RR route provides the link to the CN/CP national rail network to access the US to the south, the Orient to the West and Europe to the East...year round (no icebreaker escort required).

In summary, both roads and RR are required for various reasons and none should be excluded, as long as there is some good use for it, including back-up function. Besides, $2B from the governments (if available) should be a good starting point to get all the things shown in KWG map started at the same time. Extra funding could come from private or public sources (e.g. via a Fed Port Authority).

At least, some baby steps were taken during PDAC.

goldhunter