Folks,

My tea-leaf reading reveals the following:

1. Two Roads: Both EW and NS will be built, satrting with EW (not dead by any means), probably with the bulk of money from the Fed, NOT and CLF (surprise, surprise). Main advantages

- The EW road can be completed faster for NOT nickel project, fewer trucks to go between Weberquie Jct and Pickle Lake (then shipped by rail to existing Ni smelter in Sudbury). NOT NI project is ready to go. NOT can wait for the RR to ship the chromite out.

- This road would be required to bring up the heavy equipment and construction material up to the mines (NOT and BD/BC and BT?).

- The nice thing about this EW road is the social aspect for the FN communities (Fed department)...and ther are supporting it. My guess is that the project is "shovel ready" hence would be in a good position for some 3P money. NOT vcan chip in some (perhaps even less than 25%, if CLF is also contributing).

- The NS road: This can be designed as a service road for the RR and the power and tele-communication corridors as well as for car (and some trucks) traffic to reach the remote communities and to link up with the northern route to Attawapiskat/Moosonee. The Prov would chip in for the portion form Nakina to the ROF, but the link to the northern route (and upgrading of the northern route to an all-season road) would be done by the Fed.

2. Common International Airport (call name ROF): Before getting the tourists up there by large commercial ailiners (ROF-Air?, JV with the FNs?), let's start with a joint airstrip for the key players, NOT, CLF, KWG (with its 30% BD). Co-operation is good here since CLF would need to break out of the 2 layer "moat" arrangement, one is PRB claims, the other is NOT claims that CLF would need to cross for road access to the mine site and waterpipe crossing. Also, CLF will need to go south via FNC. So we'll see some gives and takes among the players including FN. It's a tangled web. Maintenance of the airport and future air traffic control can be done by of local folks as well.

3. 5-star Hilton: Again, a joint setup (cost savings) for the mine workers of NOT, CLF, etc. and of course for the tourists and the luminaries (premium rates for the riverview). Services and management of the complex would be run by the FNs (jobs for quite a few people). There are all kinds of spin-offs which would benefit the local folks (e.g. hunting, fishing, haircut, boat rental, stores for safety boots and hardhats, etc...).

Enough tea-leaf reading, but this should please most, if not all, stakeholders, especially the politicians since they would go down in history as nation builders.

goldhunter