irish,

Thanks for the link. Just had a speed reading and it looks like quite a comprehensive, just long enough to capture the essential elemement.

One thing that seems to stick out: On page 18, it says the cost of the NS private road is $500M (underlined in the text below):

"Cliffs Natural Resources has proposed an all-season north-south road between the
Ring of Fire and Nakina (330 km to the south), which could provide access to an existing east-west rail line. The estimated construction cost for this road is $500 million (Benoit, 2012)."

I thought the cost is more than double that, since CLF assigned a budget of $600M and reportedly (not yet verified, at least by myself) another $600M matching fund has been promissed by out former Premier.. So, the $500M is for CLF portion only?

As I recall KWG consultant's report on the comparison between road and rail says roughly $1B plus for road and about $2B for rail, but maintenance and operating costs for rail are a lot lower. Has my memory failed me?

goldhunter