2 airfares for 2 people from SYD (Bondi) to CNS = $800. Add in...

2 airfares for 2 people from SYD (Bondi) to CNS = $800. Add in say 5 days accommodation = $1200. 4WD hire, insurance, damage waiver and petrol for 5 days = $700. Living away from home meal allowance for 5 days = say $500 (discounted for 2 people). Taxi to and from airport in Sydney = $140. Sundries (audio/visual hire, stationery, computer needs, Wi-Fi use, telephone calls etc etc etc = say, $660 = $4000.

If they also had to do trips to BNE for Dept mines, and also go to landholders, councils, environment, land titles, native title, Mourilyan port and other meetings and individual discussions relating to all their developments, that trip cost could be doubled at least with additional airfares and other costs. So 1 trip of 5 days may cost $8000. If they had to do 1 trip a month then 8000 x 12 months = $96,000 pa.

On that basis, if that's the sort of trips that they had to do to get all this finalised, then we are right in the ballpark IMO. Its costly work when you are right on the edge of finalising a multi-million $ mining development.