KWG teams up with Chinese company

A Canadian mining company and Chinese railway builder have taken another step toward development of a north-south rail link to the Ring of Fire mining camp.

KWG Resources Inc. and China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Co., Ltd. (FSDI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday setting out the terms for mutually proceeding with a feasibility study for the design and financing of a railroad into the James Bay lowland.

The parties have agreed that a delegation of FSDI professionals will travel to Ontario for initial consultations by mid-March.

The Memorandum of Understanding was facilitated by Golden Share Mining Corp., KWG's agent in China. Golden Share is a Canadian-based junior mining company, indirectly controlled by the Beijing Institute of Geology for Mineral Resources, a Chinese State Owned Enterprise.

KWG said in a news release that it has also engaged Intercedent Ltd., of China and Canada, to advise globally on the transaction.

The right-of-way staked and assessed by KWG subsidiary Canada Chrome Corp. (CCC) will provide the alignment for the route. The First Nations whose traditional territories are traversed by the route will first be consulted to insure that their interests are accommodated, prior to further definitive agreements being undertaken by the parties, the news release said.

To secure access to its mineral interests in the Ring of Fire, CCC staked mineral claims in 2010 along a 340-kilometre long route covering a series of sand ridges.

Since 1953, China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Co., Ltd. has led the design and construction of over 48,000 kilometres of railways represented by western China's railway network, and undertaken over 5,000 kilometres of high-speed railways which have been in operation or are under construction in China. It has also undertaken railway, highway and subway consultation and design projects, totaling over 2,000 kilometres in over 40 countries.

KWG Resources has a 30 per cent interest in the Big Daddy chromite deposit and the right to earn 80 per cent of the Black Horse chromite where resources are being defined. KWG also owns a 100 per cent of CCC which has staked claims and conducted a surveying and soil testing program, originally for the engineering and construction of a railroad to the Ring of Fire from the Aroland First Nation near Nakina.

The other major player in the Ring of Fire, Toronto-based Noront Resources favours an east-west access road connecting its mining properties with Pickle Lake.