Proposed Ring of Fire rail project contract awarded

KWG has a 30 per cent interest in the Big Daddy chromite deposit and the right to earn 80 per cent from the Black Horse chromite deposit in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region west of James Bay in northern Ontario.

Last year China Railway agreed with KWG to undertake a feasibility study into building a 330-kilometre rail line between the Black Horse site and Nakina, Ont.

Trains would haul chromite south to a processing plant proposed by KWG, accessible via existing rails to Montreal, where the processed alloy could be transformed to stainless steel, and Canada's west coast, where ships could be loaded to transport the minerals to China.

"Canarail's knowledge of current materials and services pricing in Canada plus what it takes to design and build a mining railway while complying with local environmental, social and other applicable standards will prove to be of great assistance in facilitating and expediting completion of the feasibility study proposed by FSDI," said KWG president Frank Smeenk in a media statement released July 27.

Canarail has undertaken projects in northern Quebec, working on the Plan Nord and in western Canada, refurbishing the GoldLeaf cars of the Rocky Mountaineer fleet, to name a few.