Marlie Dog,

The portion of the route in question is the northernmost section. CCC's proposed railway consists of 3 main regions; the first 81 kms goes through the Canadian Shield consisting of exposed rock ridges that generally run in a north/south direction; the next 40 km is a transition zone of weaker glacial deposits that is a mixture of silts and aggregates; finally, the remaining 282 km to the mine site is low lands essentially consisting of string bogs. There are 89 stream and river crossings along the length of the route. Fortunately a narrow band of acceptable soils left behind by a glacial deposit was found that essentially run from the edge of the Canadian Shield directly to the mine site. The proposed railroad site will utilize this sand ridge for the majority of the northern portion of the route. I believe that Cliffs also wants to use this narrow sand ridge for the road.

I do not think that the decision from the Commissioner will be one of compromise – it is not a mediation/arbitration body. It can only rule on matters arising from the Mining Act (i.e. there will be one ‘winner’ and one ‘loser’ in the matter of CCC and Cliffs).

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