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Railroad at the Top of the World

Posted by: Michael Dudley

5 September 2008 - 11:00am

On Canada's arctic Baffin Island, engineers are preparing to construct the world's most northerly railway, a 143 kilometer line across permafrost to transport iron ore to Europe.

"It will be the world's most northerly railway, a private line snaking across the permafrost and rock of Baffin Island at a projected cost of $10-million per kilometre.

The ambitious project is part of a plan to tap iron-ore deposits 900 kilometres northwest of Iqaluit. [T]he harsh environment will make construction [very] difficult. The line will ferry workers to the mine site but will be used primarily to carry ore to the port, from which it will be shipped to Rotterdam. The projections call for four trains a day, nearly 300 days a year.

Mary River is projected to produce 18 million tonnes of iron ore annually for a generation."

Full Story: An iron road across the permafrost
Source: The Globe and Mail, September 4, 2008
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There are limits to the amount of pollution the environment can absorb without reducing ecosystem services and impairing both human health and the sustainability of our economy.
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