A Chinese railway engineering firm has agreed to embark on a feasibility study with Toronto’s KWG Resources to investigate the economics of building a Ring of Fire railroad.
KWG Resources announced Dec. 29 that it has been advised through its Chinese agent – Golden Share Mining Corp. – that its initial analysis of the concept by China Railway First Survey & Design Institute Group (FSDI) is now complete and they’re ready to take the next step.
Back in November, the Toronto junior miner allowed China Railway access to all its accumulated technical data on a proposed chromite ore haul railway, dating back to a 2010 study prepared by a Minnesota railway engineering firm, Krech Ojard.
KWG is looking to secure offshore project financing and off-take agreements of chromite from China.
“FSDI has indicated that the quality and extent of the data is adequate for FSDI to undertake a feasibility study on behalf of the parties,” said the company in a news release.
The two parties plan to meet in January to iron out the terms of reference.
KWG holds a 30 per cent stake in the Big Daddy chromite deposit, which it shares with Noront Resources. But more importantly, the company had claim-staked a 340-kilometre long north-to-south route through the Canadian Shield bush from the CN main line in northwestern Ontario to the Far North mineral belt in 2010.
The widely coveted route, atop a series of glacial sand ridges, was staked by KWG using mining claims and set aside for a possible railroad right-of-way. An Ontario appeals court will decide shortly whether the company keeps a stranglehold on that exclusive route or opens it up to other mining interests.
