This may have been pointed out already, sorry if it was, but this paper is a must read in that it overviews the whole picture, talking of Cliffs, Xstrata, Noront, KWG, China, Railway, power... (Lacking time or interest? Just skip the first 9 pages and start reading from page 10...)
http://www.miningwatch.ca/sites/miningwatch.ca/files/chromite%20economic%20analysis.pdf
Some interesting quotes re: Xstrata...
"In 2010, Timmins lost the Xstrata Kidd Metallurgical plant, and with it 640 jobs. The Kidd Met smelter in Timmins is owned by Xstrata, the world’s largest chromite miner, which has shown no interest to date in the Ring of Fire play – although the Xstrata labs have been carrying out metallurgical analysis for KWG." (p. 12)
"It is hard to believe that major multinational companies like Xstrata will stand for a cratering of the [chromite] price; it is more likely they would buy up the deposit just to prevent its being developed. Cliffs Natural Resources is trying to enter their league; it remains to be seen if they will be able to." (p. 17)
"A threat of increased chromium supply on the market from Cliffs will likely bring the large ferrochrome competitors in to the play such as Xstrata and Anglo-American. Whether they decide to let the project proceed or close it down will be determined by their own interests; not the interests of the environment, Ontario or the affected First Nations." (p. 18)
GLTA.
BaBe.
