Seems Mr Hodgman is saying, just as i have, that the outcome of the current court Appeal over the right-of-way isn't important, except in deciding who pays costs.

“In reality, what does it matter?,” said Hodgman, dismissively. “It looks like we’re going to build a railway.

“If Noront, on the other side of the argument, decide that they want to build a road over our claims, they have to show the government they have wherewithal to build that road, and I don’t think they do. It’s irrelevant.”

The most the court can say is that any company can build a road or railway over claims of other companies. They can't stop any company from building those across their own claims. Essentially, the first to build gets to choose their exact route.

As I understand it, KWG's position is, the claimholder has first rights to any area of surface to build their own infrastructure, while NOT is saying anyone who wants to can build on any part regardless of the claimholder's intentions.

That might help us if any section of the line has to cross any of NOT's ROF claims.