We were in the situation where we had four mining projects that went through the regulatory process and were fully approved. All the permits were approved. Only one of them went ahead, and that was the Gahcho Kué diamond mine because they had the money and they were able to go into immediate construction. The Nechalacho rare earth project had to raise $1.6 billion to start construction. NICO gold and lithium project has to raise about $500 million to go ahead.
We are working with the federal government. The Tlicho all-weather road will help facilitate raising capital for the NICO project because the all-weather road will reduce their costs of building a road to the mining project. The federal government could find a way to help us work with these companies to access capital, perhaps with the infrastructure bank that's been talked about. We haven't heard the full details about that. That might be an opportunity.
Certainly, I've been to China five times. We always have mining companies along to try to find ways to raise capital. We think that, if the commodity prices improve and if we can find a way to work with industry to raise capital, that would certainly help go a long way.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.