When I moose hunt we travel a mine road, the maintenance cost must be terrific

Each road means that a grader is in constant use ,8- 12 hours a day, 7 days a week ,52 weeks a year. Other equipment used are,gravel trucks, Hi-Hos ,bull dozers and excavators.The cost alone of this equipment is well over 2-3 million and thats not including the wages of the operators.

Luckily, like the proposed road for ROF, the mining company has accsess to gravel pits and a stone quarry. ....BUT this is just a sevice road for the mine and the mineworkers. There is no heavy hauling done on this road as the ore is crushed and milled on site and the final product is shipped weekly, thus no heavy trucking.

If heavier machinery is to be used for transportation of ore to be re-fined at another location as mentioned in the ROF, the upkeep of that road would be stupendous cost wise.

The use of a railway would eliminate some of this overhead ...BUT you would still need a service road for such things as Hydro,medical evacuation, getting the miners in and out for work,,food services,parts replacement (You wouldn't want to wait a week or more for a part due to breakdown).

This service road would also be used by the FN community with the ramifications being only to the good,...lessening the cost of perishable foods stuffs personal equipment such as cars, 4x4's,ski-doos, clothes etc....remember that during the Yukon gold rush there very few millionaires made (only the large syndicates) But the service people became rich...hotels, barbers, grocery store owners and that the wealth trickled down to the service people because they fulfilled a need.

IMHO the need for both is paramount for thr success of the ROF.

DRS

KYSOTI