First off I have no idea which method will be cheaper, but I will give you some idea of running our ore by rail. I work in the transportation department at CN rail, so as far as engineering costs go, I have only limited knowledge.

1)As far as I know it cost $1million per mile(Approx 6 years ago) this was for a siding extension on level ground, limited ground work.

I had previously asked one of my engineering friends to get me an approximate cost to build a new roadbed from Nakina to MacFaulds Lake.I never did get an answer( forget all about it till now).He is a share holder of Not, at a much higher price, my doing, so maybe he is mad at me LOL. I will attempt to follow up on this.

2)We would need approx 200 miles of roadbed, track, and god knows how much fill. Not too mention culverts, bridges, some sidings, a rest facility at Macfaulds lakes, and numerous other things I'm not thinking of right now.

3)The ore would be transported in Gondola cars.Approx 100 tons per car. Realistically 100 cars per train=10,000 tons.

4)Depending on the speed of the track(40mph)Trains would operate on this type of schedule.

Monday am, leave Nakina 0800 hrs with Two engines and 100 empty cars.

Arrive MacFaulds Lake approx 1300 hrs, drop off empties, pick up 100 loads.

Depart Macfaulds Lake approx 1600 hrs arrive Nakina approx 2100 hrs.

This train would then operate on our Main line to Sudbury(possibly Xstrata).Approx 440 miles.It would take approx 15 hours to Capreol and then another assignment would have to take it into Sudbury.

This is a very simplistic view of the operation, numerous factors can cause this schedule to fluctuate. Not going to go into this at this time. In extreme cold -30-40Celcius trains would probably operate with approx 80 cars.

This leads us to the following questions.

1)How much ore would be available to ship on a daily basis?

2)How much ore could the smelter handle on a daily basis?

3)How much would it cost to ship one car-100 tons? I will through out a figure of $1000, this is only a guess.

Without building a rail line to MacFaulds, the later part of the operation could still be used. Having the ore brought to Nakina by truck.

So some of our more knowledgeable posters will have to answer the above noted questions.

I'm sure with every one's help we could probably figure out which operation makes more sense.

Roos, keep feeding us your info, until all aspects are costed out and permits for everything given out, know one knows what is BS or not.

Tks Railroader