Alan Coutts quoted:

Finally, there are existing smelting plants in Sudbury for turning the Eagle’s Nest ore into nickel and copper. By contrast, there are no chromite smelters in Ontario, or in North America for that matter. It’s our plan to build a Ferrochrome Production Facility, however that won’t happen for five to seven years."

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In regards to the Ferrochrome production Facility there are some things from the past to keep in mind. "A ore processing facility near the mine"

http://tulloch.ca/projects/ferrochrome-production-facility/

This was known as the Cliffs Chromite Project and was comprised of four components— the mine site located near McFaulds Lake; an ore-processing facility at McFaulds Lake; an integrated transportation system;

and a Ferrochrome Production Facility (FPF). The proposed Ferrochrome Production Facility was situated in the City of Greater Sudbury approximately 20 km north-west of Capreol.

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From 2013

http://www.ibkcapital.com/capital-market-highlights/base-metals-sector/chromium/

Cliffs Natural Resources, a NYSE-listed iron-ore and coal mining company, has been executing a strategy over the last several years to achieve scale in its mining operations with a focus on serving the world’s largest steel markets. The company’s objective is to become the sole North American chromite and ferrochrome producer and exporter. Cliff’s completed two transactions in 2010 to solidify its chromite position in the Ring of Fire. The first was the C$250 million acquisition of Freewest Resources for its Black Thor and Black Label chromium projects. The second was the acquisition of Spider Resources for its Big Daddy chromite project for C$130 million.

Cliffs has scheduled production to begin in 2016, consisting of four interrelated components. An open pit mine is anticipated to produce roughly 3.7 million tonnes of crude chromite ore annually, with a projected mine life of 30 years.  After preliminary processing at the mine site, 2.3 million tonnes of concentrated ore will be transported south.  In Sudbury, the proposed Capreol smelter is projected to produce 560,000 tonnes of high carbon ferrochrome annually.  As a huge portion of the world’s chromite ore is produced in South Africa, it would appear that Cliffs is taking advantage of producing ferrochrome in a geopolitically safe region such as Ontario, with an abundance of reasonably priced power.

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Cliffs Stated: After preliminary processing at the mine site, 2.3 million tonnes of concentrated ore will be transported south.

Noront mentions, "It’s our plan to build a Ferrochrome Production Facility, however that won’t happen for five to seven years."

But, they say nothing about preliminary processing at the mine site for concentrated chrome.

If Cliffs had an interested customer in southern USA for 2.3 million tonnes..can we assume that customer is still interested?

I bet the customer wanting the 2.3 million tonnes in Southern usa was (outokumpu in Calvert Alabama)

no reason why the same deal isn't on the table for Noront since, Cliffs desire to " to become the sole North American chromite and ferrochrome producer and exporter"......didn't pan out :)