Well some people believe the earth is flat, I'm not one of them....

Well some people believe the earth is flat, I'm not one of them. Given the significant amount of missteps by management over an extended period of time,it is far,far more plausible that the project hasn't progressed significantly faster because the skill sets needed to achieve that, are not possessed by the geologist MD and those he has chosen to surround himself with and instead a process of trial and error has been adopted,which suits the MD just fine,as he's somewhat overpaid on a peer comparison.
Sometimes in life,including investing life,we just have to admit that WE misjudged how things actually are. Blaming a conspiracy(which would be reasonably unforeseeable) is a convenient way to avoid that admission, but doesn't make for better long term outcomes.