Hello JL,

You mentioned the following: "As far as I know there are no gravel deposits near the rof...until some digs a mine.."

While many might have been given the impression that there is no gravel on the way to the ROF, that is not actually the case. One has to remember that the way up to the ROF is almost all through what we call the boreal forest. This is a forest that is based largely upon solid ground that is interspersed with muskeg. Only when you get within a few kilometres of the ROF do you get into some of the James Bay Lowlands where solid ground is at more of a premium.

What this means is that for most of the road access (perhaps 75% or so?), we have good materials to work with that are interspersed all along the road prism. In this area, there are very prominent glacial striations that run generally from southwest to northeast. A great many large gravel eskers have been deposited by the glaciers in the direction of their retreat. That means that we have large sources of gravel that run generally in the same direction as the existing winter road (which is the one that is proposed to be made into all season), from southwest to northeast. That is the reason why the winter road upgrade is popular with Noront. The southern route proposed by Cliffs is actually the more problematic one with regard to materials.

RHammer