The reserves near the ROF did not want a ROF road running through it. They did not want a "connect the reserve dots right to the mine."

They did not want daily truck traffic running through the reserves. They were interested in a branch from the reserve to the main ROF road.

If you look at page 23 of the AECOM link below you'll see a map. You'll see the winter road that cliffs paid a fortune to upgrade and the "other" 4 proposed routes from Marten Falls to a main road.

https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/documents/p80184/132152E.pdf

A good link to look at is found below:

http://resourceclips.com/2013/06/13/which-way-to-ring-of-fire/

If you look carefully you can see that the design from the beginning was not to connect reserve dots and make a path to the ROF.

If you look at the north south route as an example it has nothing to do with the marten falls 4 proposed routes being studied.

"Seemingly a Plan B, Noront’s east-west corridor was actually the company’s first idea. It would link the Eagle’s Nest project to Highway 808, roughly 230 kilometres southwest. But in May 2012, the Ontario government conditionally agreed to help finance the north-south route, part of Cliffs’ $3.3-billion proposal to build the Black Thor mine with road access to a new processing facility near Sudbury. On that basis, Noront used the north-south route in the base case for the September 2012 Eagle’s Nest feasibility study. Noront retained the east-west route as back-up.

Northern Ontario’s muskeg poses development challenges, as this photo from Noront Resources shows.

Prudently, it now seems. Explaining the suspension of what would have been North America’s first major chromite mine, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys Bill Boor said, “Certain critical elements of the project’s future are not solely within our control and require the active support and participation by other interested parties such as government agencies and impacted first nation communities.”

Reacting to Cliffs’ suspension, Noront chairman/interim CEO Paul Parisotto said his company’s east-west proposal “balances first nations objectives, the environment and job growth. We’re confident this alternative will be attractive to each level of government, the local communities and the people who will benefit from this sensible approach.”

The route would upgrade an existing winter road to all-weather status. Among its advantages, it “avoids provincial parks, avoids areas of special interest to aboriginal groups and provides the greatest benefit to first nation communities,” the feasibility report stated. The native bands are currently served by air travel and winter road.