From what I understand the US considered the return of capital...

From what I understand the US considered the return of capital to be a distribution of income, rather than a real return of capital. If CRN was genuinely winding down it's business, or had sold a mine and was returning that portion of capital, then I do not believe it would have withholding tax. However, CRN was essentially trying to juice it's dividend up, rather than return capital, so a ruling was likely made this was not a genuine return of capital and rather a distribution of income. CRN applied for a private ruling on this distribution in AUS but they did not publish it for some reason.

Why would you prefer to develop Sembehun?