How about the railway indeed!!! In 1951, thw Iron Ore Co of Canada began building a 359 mi/573km railway from Sept-Isle Que to Shefferville. It was completed in 1954 through vast expanse of boggy wilderness that included 2500 culverts and 7 major bridges. In 1961, it was extended to Lab City. It has been billed as the greatest airlift of civil aviation history. I have heard stories of dozers being lost in bogs, never ever recovered, air drops winding up in the bush or bog and never found, people sleeping on their equipment to keep warm. It was working conditions that in todays construction world would not be tolerated. I have travelled on this complete line, and have followed the railbed from Lab City to Shefferville by snowmachine. It is a beautiful country with magnificent rivers and lakes. It has been reported that the railway handles 60,000 t of material movement a day.

Almost parallel to this is the 260mi/416km Quebec Cartier railway that the iron ore mine at Mont Wright (Fermont) uses to transport their pellets/concentrate to Port Cartier near Sept-Isles. I am not sure why the second railway was built except that they had a mine at Gagnon and I assume they needed that area connected.

So, in a decade, two lenghthy railways were built through the harsh Que/Lab wilderness. It can certainly be accomplished to the ROF. Cliffs is making the business case for it based on chromite as we speak. Noront has their own feasibility consultants working on a couple of fronts. I honestly believe that their will be cooperation from all parties once they have firm establishment of proven reserves in the full suite of commodities and it is agreed who produces and controlls the different elements.