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Champion Minerals Inc. announced that contracts for two railway studies have been awarded to determine rail options for the Fire Lake North (“FLN”) Project.
These studies will clarify existing options for rail and port infrastructure associated with the updated FLN Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) scoping study scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2011. The studies will be utilized to define the best rail infrastructure option and scope of work for the Feasibility Study that is scheduled for delivery during the second quarter of 2012.In the initial November 2010 PEA, the cost of a 62 km railway to connect to the Bloom Lake Railway (“BLR”) was included in the project study. This was the lowest capital expenditure solution of several options being considered for connecting to the Quebec North Shore and Labrador (“QNS&L”) railway. The FLN railway infrastructure study has been awarded to Rail Cantech Inc., a full service railway provider that constructed the BLR in 2010. Rail Cantech will compare each option and determine the optimal scenario for Champion’s FLN Project. A second study was also awarded to Stantec Consulting to determine the capacity of the QNS&L railway that connects to the Port of Sept Isles. Due to increasing demand for rail access associated with the growing Canadian iron ore industry, this study will also help to determine the optimal railway infrastructure solution for the Company. Tom Larsen, President and CEO stated, “This study will enable the Company to identify the best railway option for the FLN Project. We have retained Rail Cantech who constructed the Bloom Lake Railway in 2010 and their expertise will be utilized by Champion in the ongoing PEA Update study that will define the scope of work for the 2012 Feasibility studies on FLN.” The Fermont Iron HoldingsChampion’s Fermont Property Holdings comprise seventeen Properties. Three of the seventeen Projects drilled by Champion to-date, namely Fire Lake North, Bellechasse and Harvey-Tuttle, contain current combined National Instrument 43-101 compliant Inferred Mineral Resources totaling 1.55 Billion Tonnes grading 25.4 % Total Iron at a 15% cut-off. Seven other Properties contain combined Historical Mineral Resource Estimates* totaling 613 MT grading 31% Total Iron. A fully-funded, 60,000 m diamond-drilling program is underway and is designed to outline the resource base for eight Projects within conveying distance of the Fire Lake North Project in Cluster 2, together with ongoing drilling on the Lac Moire Project, which is adjacent to the east of ArcelorMittal’s Mont Wright Mine. |
