Re: Winter roads to northern Ontario First Nations destroyed by warm weather
posted on
Jan 23, 2017 02:40PM
NI 43-101 Update (September 2012): 11.1 Mt @ 1.68% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.89 gpt Pt and 3.09 gpt Pd and 0.18 gpt Au (Proven & Probable Reserves) / 8.9 Mt @ 1.10% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.16 gpt Pt and 3.49 gpt Pd and 0.30 gpt Au (Inferred Resource)
In 5 weeks it will be exactly 2 years since $785,000 of tax payer money was given to study a "transportation corridor" that would connect four remote First Nations (Webequie, Eabametoong, Neskantaga and Nibinamik) to Pickle Lake.
Every man woman and child paid the equivalent of $17.81 out of their pocket to allow 4 reserves to study this road.
And yet, we get news of winter roads to northern ontario First Nations being destroyed by warm weather and the complaints by First nations about the high costs of flying things in.
The choices are....
go for the road and stop complaining about the warm weather.
or
give back each man, woman and child $17.81 and continue to pay high costs of flying things in....without complaining.
Nice to see Tlicho First Nations moving forward with a plan.
by DCN NEWS SERVICES Jan 23, 2017
The federal government will provide up to 25 per cent of eligible project costs through the P3 Canada Fund. The other participating government partner is the Government of the Northwest Territories.
The procurement of the road through a public-private partnership will start with the release of the Request for Qualifications in February 2017 and will be followed by a Request for Proposals with bids from private industry to provide combined finance and construction.
The project will consist of approximately 97 kilometres of a new two-lane road to Whati, including four new bridges and one large arched culvert, indicates a federal government media statement.
Currently served by a winter ice road, the Tlicho region has overland access to the Yellowknife region and southern Canada for only three months of the year. During the remaining months, food and supplies are flown in at significant costs, with resulting food prices often 50 per cent higher than in Yellowknife.
Whati is located 50 kilometres south of Fortune Minteral's proposed NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper mine, which has already received environmental assessment approval and the major mine permits for construction, including the 50-kilometre spur road to Whati. A Fortune media statement explained the road is a "critical enabler for mine operations and will allow the company to truck metal concentrates south to the rail head at Hay River for railway delivery to its proposed refinery in Saskatchewan for downstream processing to value added products."
With development of the NICO project, Fortune would become a supplier of cobalt chemicals needed to manufacture lithium-ion batteries used in portable electronic devices, electric vehicles and stationary storage cells.
The N.W.T. government is also working on improved winter road access to the communities of Gameti and Wekweti. The routing for the all-season road follows an existing brownfield land-based winter road route to minimize environmental disturbance and lower construction costs.
Jan 23, 2017