I know some of the regulars here are very tribal about Adina v...

I know some of the regulars here are very tribal about Adina v Shaakichiuwaanaan but my own view is that the two projects will benefit each other.

For instance, by the sounds of it, Patriot is a little further along the permitting timeline than Winsome (PMT started environmental baseline studies in 2022 and began the formal process at a provincial level late last year). Both Critical Elements, with their Rose project, and Allkem/Arcadium, with their James Bay/Galaxy project, had a terrible time of it getting clearance from the provincial Examination Committee ("COMEX"), with both processes taking more than 5 years. COMEX was quite vocal that all the issues and delays were due to the mining companies, not COMEX. And both Ken Brinsden and Chris Evans have indicated confidence in the COMEX process. It looks like it will be Patriot that first gets to test that supposition and hopefully knock any of the bureaucratic kinks out for Winsome.

As equally important to Winsome as the timing of permitting is the timing of the extension of Route 167, linking the Renard mine to Adina. Whether or not Winsome acquires Renard they need for La Grande Alliance to expedite the extension of that road. And I think Patriot has done Winsome another favour here by stating in their preliminary economic assessment (PEA) documentation that they too want the road to be extended, and sooner rather than later. Patriot says they will approach La Grande Alliance about this matter as part of their feasibility study (FS) (this from page 26 of the PEA) which I guess they will be kicking off on soon.



I would think that having two big project developers advocating for an early start on the road extension is better than having just the single developer lobbying.

On another matter, possibly relating to the Becancour cluster, it may be bad news that Ford has now announced they are killing development of an all electric SUV model for the US market, with a possible US$1.9b write down. Not sure where Ford was planning to have the production lines for that SUV but no matter where its canning must surely take some of the forward momentum out of the north American EV sector.