From the Feb 2 2018 update press release....substantially same as July 10, 2018

Ferrorchrome Production Facility

Noront has engaged Hatch, a Mississauga, Ontario-based engineering and consulting company to assist in adjudicating the bids. Next steps include calculating indicative capital and operating costs and reviewing these alongside community and First Nations support, site appropriateness, environmental factors, access to a skilled workforce and other elements.

Near the conclusion of this detailed analysis, Noront will engage directly with the owners of the favoured site(s) to come to a mutually agreeable commercial arrangement for the use of the property.

The Company estimates the adjudication process will conclude in three to four months depending on the competitiveness and complexity of the bids and the ensuing commercial negotiations. A decision will be publicly announced at that time along with the criteria and rationale for site selection. 

Exploration Update

Cyr Drilling in partnership with Webequie First Nation began a 3-hole drill program targeting high-grade copper-zinc mineralization at our McFaulds Lake VMS property. This is taking place at a recently discovered, high-priority electromagnetic (EM) anomaly located midway between the McFaulds No.3 and No.1 deposits (See Figure 1). In addition, up-dip drilling will take place on the newly discovered McFaulds No.8 copper-zinc VMS occurrence. (See press releases dated September 26, 2017 and November 27, 2017 for further detail.)

In conjunction with drilling activities, Crone Geophysics will perform ground EM surveys over three high-priority VMS targets on the property (Figure 1) as well as borehole-EM surveying of the planned drill holes. “We are very excited about the continued discovery potential at the McFaulds VMS camp and look forward to providing shareholders with additional exploration updates in the weeks to come,” said Noront Vice President Exploration, Ryan Weston.