Ok Ed -- you asked for some additions, so let me try

a. The first thing is what's going on with Noront's Eagle's Nest EA/EIS. Last I remember, say 2 months ago (please correct me), FN's in the area were given funding from the feds to study the route of the E/W road, and the time for that study should be ending soon, no? Then what?

b. ontario government funding -- yes the federal liberals have committed the billion dollars to the Ring of Fire, and Ed, I think you blamed the botched roll-out of the DevCo after Wynne's re-election for the money not being forthcoming, botched because it did not include FN representation. Maybe, but another driver is that the billion dollars will probably be coming from sale of part of Hydro I, and that's in a bill that hasn't yet gotten before parliament. That's going to be a big thing for the liberals to pull off, as there could be quite a bit of opposition due to fears of hydro rate increases. Plus their ability to pull off this sale and their general competence can be questioned because they're doing such a fine job negotiating with the teachers' unions...

c. the federal government -- IMHO, the federal government seems to have a system in place where Mr Rickford gives out these small grants, a couple million to study chromite smelting with natural gas, a million here for a FN co-operative banking initiative, 40K for a research grant at Lakehead, and then have a big press conference about it. However, whenever asked commit big money, the feds then point their finger and blame the 'incompetence' of the ontario liberals. However, they can't play this game indefinately -- at some point everyone will see their bluff, if they aren't already.

d. FN's -- what I think they want is everything, that is to say they want jobs, transportation, economic opportunity, and independence from the tender mercies of the department of Indian Affairs, that brings them bottled water by plane and gives them barely enough money to patch up their aging water treatment facilities with duct tape and band-aids. In addition to wanting the maximum, they will be very hard to negotiate with because they have very poor education and literacy scores (geez that thousand page EA must give them a headache), and are always suspicious of the intention of the whiteys, including the Fed's, Ontario government and the mining companies, Noront included, no matter how much outreach Alan Coutts does. However, the FNs really do want the ROF to move forward because they want economic indepenence, and the mining jobs are their only way to get that. And when I mean the FN's, I have to disagree with Ed in that not just the folk in Webique and Martin River -- they don't just want the money to come to them and have their neighbours remain jealous and in poverty. So if the E/W road passes through the villages in the Nishkatanga, Wibimik and Eabamatoong FNs, presumably they'd be using the road to get to their jobs in Eagle's Nest, Blackbird, Black Horse, etc., so they become part of the ROF as well.

e. railroads -- I don't even want to go there as that's about the chromite and too far in the future. I think we have enough to deal with the eagle's nest EA, the province getting their act together to come up with the billion, the FN's figuring out what to do with the EA etc.

Anyway, my thoughts. Overall, IMHO this ROF stuff is a long process with a lot of different variables in play -- FN agreements, Ontario gov't passing bills etc. I've only been in this for a year, but I think we can't expect anything else but to be patient.

Alex

In terms of the 'getting it right', and since someone mentioned the original KWG/cliffs railroad route, I'm wondering what KWG either management or investors (Ed?) think of the FN-proposed rail route via Moosenee? Is there any interest or is it being rejected out of hand?

Hi Ken -- the EA rimeline keeps moving back, first I hear fall, now Dec. What is the dec timeline based on, anyone out here know? But agree with your post -- the announcement of the devco was a sort of 'dead cat bounce' -- stock went from $.48-.50 to 0.5-0.52, then the next week it went back to 0.48-0.50. EA announcement should be a bigger deal though.

Alex

from 96klit

His approach is narrow minded, with only his local bands getting all the benefits

1) Attawapiskat doesn't have a deep sea port. Who's going to pay for that.

2) Having a deep sea port means you're shipping all resources out of the Country for processing....not good, won't happen.

Or maybe his idea was to extend Noront's Pickle Lake-ROF road the what, 2-300 km to Attawapiskat, then ship the ore/partially processed ore/partially smelted iron-chromium, whatever, to Moosonee and onto the rail line from there. So then you're transfering the cost of building a Nakina-ROF railway to an extra road and upgrading ports. Anyone have an idea how much it would cost to make Attawapiskat and Moosonee ship-worthy? Also I'm assuming there's a winter road to follow from Webique to Attawapiskat just like from Pickle Lake to Webique -- anyone know if that's true?

Alex

Alex

Does anyone know the timeline when the review of Arianne's environmental impact assessment by the Ministère du développement durable, de l’environnement, and de la faune et des parcs (MDDEFP), will be complete, and when will the final version be published? As I read on the website, it was submitted June 28 2013 (over a year ago) -- what in general is the timeline for these things in Quebec?

Thank you

Alex Singer

Hi -- first just to say that I'm new to the site, and am interested to join in the discussion both from my interest in geology and northern development, and also as an investor with a small bet on Noront.

Anyway, as to the discussion here, I agree Geo and Gh make good points. My only comment is that I think that

GH: So what's NOT waiting for? Just get on with it, instead of getting side tracked with trivial stuff such as the Koper claim challenge.

applies even more so to KWG. I mean, at least Noront has its EA which is expected to be approved in the next few months, and then it can focus the majority of its energy and resources on getting Eagle's Nest mine and the road up to the ROF up and running. However, with KWG the only news I see is its lawsuits and complaints about its competitors -- disputing claims with Noront, disputing with Cliffs about its easement for a railway which won't be happening anytime soon, heck, they're even complaining that Noront wont let them use their airstrip. Meanwhile, I see nothing solid or news about an EA about how they plan to make an income from Black Horse or any of the other chromite deposits, how they plan to extract the chromite, smelt it, get it to market etc. I feel that KWG is just far behind and the more they spend their resources in the courts, the further behind they're gong to get.

Alex