that sickening feeling., page-9

" by the need to revisit basic issues such as power supply and tailings disposal, two of the fundamental components of a mine."

Thanks Deiadiva "two of the fundamental components of a mine."

Some one cocked up badly IMHO.

"which could theoretically have a mine life of 50 years, and more."

I'm no power supply expert,however my rudimentary research suggests while there is plenty of natural gas in PNG,it wont be cheap early on,or in deed throughout the life of the mine.

As left field as it may seem, utilising a Modular Small Reactor,over the life of the mine would be the cheapest option.
Again while no expert,I favour the Russian MSR used in their Icebreakers,which are a known technology being used in the "field" for some circa fifty years.
A barge mounted model could be tied up to MMC's berthing area at Madang.
My research to date suggests that the time table could be met to supply them.
If I were Les,I'd get the Russians to supply two of them,one could be used for other electricity users,so as the whole project would cost MMC nothing.
Remember PNG is desperately short of electricity.
Its entirely possible that money to finance this approach could be forthcoming from the Asian Development Bank.

The tailing dam issue is somewhat different(as I see it),my preference would be to have a dam,but given the rainfall and seismic activity,that occurs in PNG,should a calamity eventuate,the consequences could be quite catastrophic.
I'll bow to some ones superior knowledge on this one,DSTD could be the safer option providing a more solid viscosity was utilised.

Raider