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Montreal – Canadian National Railway Co. has suspended preliminary planning work on an estimated $5-billion railway line in northern Quebec because of increased uncertainty on the timing of certain iron ore mining projects.

Montreal-based CN and pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec had signed up six mining companies to help fund a feasibility study of the rail link and a related terminal handling facility.

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The new railway, which would be Canada’s biggest new rail infrastructure project in decades, would stretch 800-kilometres from the port of Sept-Iles to the Labrador mining trough.

CN spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin said Friday that the preliminary work has been suspended. “We’re re-evaluating the timeline and the fact that the business objectives of some of the mining companies have changed,” he said.

Cliff’s Natural Resources Inc., one of the miners involved, announced Nov.19 it would delay portions of its Bloom Lake mine phase 2 expansion in Quebec amid increased volatility in iron ore pricing and lower North American steelmaking utilization rates.