Hi Andesite, I wondered how long it would take to hear from you.
To answer a few of your points -
- I do not think it's all in the bag, that much is obvious. But what I do think is that BCL are finished in Bougainville.
- Regarding the other landowners, have you been following all this controversy on the McGlinn 'proposal? If you had you would have noticed that 'all landowners' in the Panguna mine area came out together as one in one statement & declared unanimous rejection & disapproval of the McGlinn plan. That reads to me like all the landowners are communicating with each other including the SMLOLA. And its the SMLOLA who are driving the SMLOLA/RTG Panguna mine re-opening proposal.
- It wasn't just 'some of the local MPs have a meeting in a POM hotel with RTG'. It was the entire Bougainville Executive Council, plus the MP's, who were all in Port Moresby for the Joint Supervisory Board meeting.
- I appreciate your view & constant support of BCL. But to link RTG & BCL saying that RTG would have been better off working with them completely misunderstands the situation. RTG are, & always have been, working with the landowners who are the owners of the land & the minerals contained in it. The landowners completely reject BCL. They are persona non grata to the landowners, they do not want anything to do with them. End of story.
Now if you suggest BCL would have been better off working with the landowners thats a different story. But that would have involved huge payments in reparations, the probability of expensive environmental repair & regeneration & a very public & open admission of fault & apology. And that, I think, was a very big bridge too far for BCL to cross.
(20min delay)
