A reasonable estimate for laying new track in relatively level territory is $200/foot. Based on estimates of 300 Km from the nearest railroad track near Lake Nipegon to the Ring of Fire that others have posted and which looks to about right to me we would be looking at about $200,000,000 for track. This would not included costs for major civil works such as bridges, etc. Filling muskeg swamps might run the cost up substantially - I would take a ball park shot of $400,000,000 all in to build the track. Perhaps another way to look at the cost of getting rail in would be to estimate the cost of a road and add $200,000,000. The next question would be where would the ore go -would it be consumed/refined in the Great Lakes region or would it be exported around the world. We need to know the final destination along with the volume to estimate the transit time and hence the number of cars that would be required.
Economical train lengths are typically about 100 cars, each carrying about 100 tons. So a train would move about 10,000 tons. I don't have any experience with ore cars, but based on other types of rail car costs I would think that $100,000 per car would be a reasonable estimate. A good rule of thumb for individual railcar moves is that if the move is under five hundred miles truck is cheaper. If we can move ore on a unit train say from the mine to transloading port either on the Great Lakes or at Montreal or to a refinery at Sudbury for example then the rail economics get a lot a better.
Anyone have any feel for how much material we would want to move out of this region when we have mine? I think that is the key as to whether rail makes sense.
