longt, It is very normal to have obstacles thrown at you and to...

longt, It is very normal to have obstacles thrown at you and to have to claim over to get approvals, this is world wide but I always found that little things help to get results.
I fully agree and just maybe a nice pair of aussie opal earrings or a Longine for the lady minister to celebrate the opening, no need to be extravagant.
Since I am at it, last month we were at 81% of commissioning works and I would start a little estimation of what it will be at the end of October. My guess is 91% as this is really a tricky achievement to reach. The way I see it, the mechanical, electrical and software part are relatively common and can be achieved by most qualified specialists in their fields but I think the chemical side of it is the most difficult to bring to fruition as it will require tweaking due to variation of the brine which would not be all the same due to where it was pumped from or length of time of evaporation, etc.
Good luck to us all, we are nearly there.