"But Noront Resources Ltd. CEO Alan Coutts says the first minerals out of the ground will be nickel concentrate, to be processed in Sudbury."

1. So if Noront is not bought out and they can raise the money to build a mine, they plan to do the crushing, screening and milling underground, bring the nickel concentrate to surface and ship it to Sudbury for Smelting and Refining? In this case they would either sell the con to a Sudbury miner or pay for toll processing.

2. We can assume they will also produce a concentrate of Chromite before shipping out of ROF. It would not make economic sense to ship raw ore that far.

3. Due to the enormous cost of building a ferochrome smelter/refinery it makes sense that a major company would either buy Noront or form a JV. Vale and Glencore  are located in Sudbury and have the buying power (and need) to pull this off. They already have infrastructure  and manpower in Sudbury. Sudbury has the school of mines at Laurentian, a concentration of mining supply companies, a large experienced workforce and qualified and experienced senior mining executives. Much easier to attract engineers to Sudbury than smaller northern towns. Seems Sudbury is the logical location for the new plant. Regardless of what Noront suggests, the company that buys the deposit will make the decision regading location of a new plant.