Page 52 Approximately 3 billion to develop chromite mine Contd from pg 50 steel is produced Persico explained the needs dif f er for the North Amer ican and Asian markets In North America and Europe ferrochrome is in demand while in Asia where there is already ferrochrome processing fa cilities it is demanding chromite con centrate A critical element in developing Cliffs Black Thor open pit mine and the or e pr ocessing facility will be the construction of a northsouth r oad The northsouth road will fa cilitate the trucking of concentrate in sealed car go containers from the ore processing plant to an existing rail network 340 km to the south of Black Thor via the combination of a new all weather road and existing provincial resource roads The vehicles will travel 80 km of ex isting provincial resource roads on the southern end of the route to access the proposed transload facility located near an existing Canadian National Railway siding where the concentrate car go containers will be transferred to rail cars and shipped to Capreol The Aroland First Nation is located west of the proposed transload facili ty Over the summer it was among the First Nations who threatened to issue eviction orders to companies doing exploratory work in the Ring Discussions between Clif fs and the Ontario government proceeded and an agreement in principle was reached on key elements of the chromite mine development including construction of an allweather northsouth road that will facilitate transportation to the transload facility At this time Clif fs is engaged in dis cussions with the province of Ontario regarding a northsouth allweather access road that will connect the Proj ect mine site to existing provincial road and rail infrastructure It is an ticipated that First Nations and other natural resource companies will be provided access to the allweather access road At present Clif fs antici pates that it will design construct own operate and maintain the road It is envisioned that the discussions with the province of Ontario will be completed in the near future In May 2012 Cliffs announced Ca pr eol s Old Moose Mountain as the location of its Ferr ochr ome Pr oduc tion Facility FPF Clif fs said that the Sudbury area had greater potential due to various eco nomic and technical factors proxim ity to electricity supply better trans portation and labour markets Clif fs produced a supplementary EA T e rms of Reference for the environ mental assessment on the FPF and released for public review According to the T e rms of Reference document the FPF will use an enclosed electric arc furnaces to process approximately 3000 to 4000 tonnes of concentrate to produce about 1250 and 1750 tonnes of ferrochrome According to Persico Cliffs esti mates it will invest appr oximately 3 billion to develop the chr omite mine and onsite pr ocessing facility the transportation component and the Capr eol FPF The mine is estimated to cost 150 million and the near mine processing facility 800 million The ferrochrome facility in Capreol is slated to cost 18 billion and the trans porta tion com po nents 600 mil lion Persico include the creation of 1200 jobs to construct the mine processing plant and the ferrochrome facility Another 1200 jobs will be created once the mine plant and facilities are opera tional tario including members of the First Nation communities Persico said that Clif fs is committed to ensuring the communities in the Ring of Fire along the transportation route and near the ferrochrome facil Clif fs Natural Resources has a 160 year history in Michigan and Minne sota of successfully investing in the communities where it locates Per sico said W e are a sustainable com pany that invests generously in our communities Befor e Cliffs chr omite mine can be developed it must r e ceive appr oval for its envir onmental assessment negotiate agr eements with First Na tion communities whose lands will ment with the Ontario government on the pr ovision of infrastructur e that will make the mining pr oject feasible Persico said Clif fs is working towards agreements with First Nations near the Project components There are multiple First Nation communities in the area and along the transportation route Clif fs Resources is respectful of their heritage lands and traditional knowl edge Persico said