friendly bet, page-15

re: judicial review s111a previous cases Doughboy

1. I looked at the mining act and can't quite pin down the meaning of "retention status. But everywhere I could find the term used it seemed to be related to an "Exploration Licence", which I assume is a somewhat different kettle of fish compared to an EL - an exploration LEASE. Unless an EL can also mean Exploration Licence. In which case I give up.

But so far I'm sure the RIO mob held an exploration licence that expired Friday 26th August, 2005.

2. The bit about holding an exploration lease on less onerous terms. I it suspect simply means the Minister can, and I gather usually does, go soft on the annual fees charged to hold on to a lease, year after year after year.

On the other hand, what if it cost a pretty penny to hold on to a lease, and as a result, as Gollum put it "my precious" discovery?

And it sends you broke before you can develop a mine? Or the price of say iron is down and the discovery is uneconomic? Would the country be swarming with opportunists and scavengers and no-one willing to get out there and make discoveries?

I think it’s a bit more complicated than either extreme.

But lets say the extreme practice of letting a discovery be practically guaranteed for the benefit of the discoverer, is in vogue. Does such an extreme also justify forgiving a leaseholder letting the lease expire?
After all, one man's "my precious" is another's "I have to have", which is irrespective of what it is. So long as it has value.

And monetary value is like asking, which weighs the heaviest? A kilo of iron or a kilo of feathers? An adult will understand they weigh "teh same".

So I ask, what is so special about $1 billion worth of iron ore that is different (from an owner's point of view), to say a $1 billion worth of copper. And even
feathers, if there was a large enough market. If there was no market then the feathers would not be so valued.

Personally, I don't care. I just want to own a $1 billion's worth of anything. I'll even take as much guano as you can supply. Just heap on top of me and I'll be happy as a pig in mud. $1 Billions worth of it though. It needs to be worth my while.

3. When Carpenter spoke about the penalty being large for such a minor error (or words to that effect), I assume he did not elaborate. If he did, and if we could cross-examine him, I wonder what he would have done since time immemorial where good people such as he have presided over such outcomes, which litter the pages of history. And as a woman once said, “tough titties”.