I think some people who are getting excited about the idea of a railroad and a slurry pipe should sit back and think about the implications. Right now, KWG can't even afford a train, let alone 300+ km of railroad into northern Ontario. The two items, pipeline and railroad, are probably mutually exclusive. So if there's a pipeline, there probably won't be a railroad. So all the ideas about making money from a railroad by shipping ore from all the other mines in the ROF should be set aside.

Also, the FN's want opportunities for social and economic development. There would be a lot more opportunities for economic development with a railroad than with a pipeline. Once the pipeline is built (and I'm assuming that this will be sub-surface) there isn't a lot of employment involved. There aren't going to be security patrols. There will be sensors at a number of locations so if there's a problem, they'll know roughly where the problem is, but these things are designed to be extremely low-maintenance. I can see a dichotomy between FN's who like the idea of a pipeline as being extremely low-impact on the environment compared to rail, but being a problem because they can't ride the pipeline down south to visit Toronto. So there won't be a pipeline without an accompanying road.

And there was a suggestion that a combination pipeline and toll road will be the best solution. Hello? Haven't we been saying that Cliffs' ideal of a private road was not in the public interest?

My guess is that a private pipeline with a public road might be a solution. The advantage for KWG is that it gives them an essential monopoly situation on the chromite. Who is going to set up a competing mine and truck their ore out via the public resource road when KWG is sending it out via private pipeline at a substantially lower cost.

There are many things to consider. Everything affects everything.