RE: RE: Political Decision... All good points except that the steel argument falls flat on its face with opponents when they look at the May 2011 feasibility or the dAIR and see that
a) there goal is to produce 80% coking and 20% thermal middling coal.... So no, it's not all steel for cars.
b) if market conditions demand it, they will produce 100% high grade thermal coax
c) they are building the plant to be able to be expanded to handle the Bear openpit project in the future, which would require a much less stringent EA process and also be 100% thermal coal with no chance of coking coal coming from that project.
So in the end, the companys line about all opposition being hypocrites for driving to the protest in our steel wheeled cars is very thin indeed.
And you might want to check out google on the question of ways to make steel. The first iron ore was not made from coal, but rather from charcoal, which is actually a superior feedstock as it burns hotter but coal supplanted it simply because it was cheaper to mine in ever increasing quantities.