Andesite
Yes, you spent time on the RTG forum but your arguments didn't change no matter how many facts I put forward to change your opinion.
To me, all you guys undersell Miriori as a dumb, greedy, blackfella & do not give any thought that he might see the situation a lot more clearly than yourselves.
Like it or not BCL have a terrible history in Bougainville. Because of this the spectre of reparations & compensation will never leave them. The mine needs a new start but BCL can't restart themselves as the EL that it had would go with it, if they had reconstituted a new company.
You keep re-iterating that that the PNG govt. & ABG have 73% of BCL so how can it fail. The reasons I give are -
1. 73% of it's owners are broke, they have no cash, so no funding will come from there, Dilution will be large so 73% is a furfy.
2. BCL leadership is arrogant. They have had years to try to shore up their relationship with the SMLOLA.
Specifically, over 2 years since the new mining act came into play, giving them a dealine & incentive to have dialogue & negotiate.
Did they do anything? No. They relied on the ABG & then token payments to peripheral landowners to bypass having to deal with the SMLOLA.
Yes, approaching the SMLOLA would have been hard & difficult. All the staff would have needed to be replaced for historical reasons & a completely fresh start made, cap in hand, on bended knee if need be, to show care, understanding, recognising of the wrongs done, commitment to correct past errors & faults. But none of this was done, NONE.
Not only that, but they kept insulting the SMLOLA leader, Phillip Miriori, who always was favoutite to retain leadership in the dispute, but even if he wasn't surely a prudent company hedges it's bets.
3. The landowners, the SMLOLA, control who comes onto their land & mines through the mining act. The ABG can bluster all they like but at the end of the day they cannot ignore their own laws. They, the ABG & the eventual developers, both have to get the agreement of the SMLOLA to start work at Panguna.
4. RTG's experience, track record, financial backing & contacts provide a much better opportunity to re-open the Panguna Mine in a timely, cost effective & environmentally friendly way than any other company.
The other thing I pointed out is that it is not RTG alone who is the rival to BCL. It is the Central Me'ekamui JV. This is a 50/50 jv between the SMLOLA & Central Exploration P/L. RTG & it's major shareholder are shareholders in Central Exploration. Now I know you guys keep rubbishing the Central Exp CEO Renzie Duncan but, as Michael Carrick CEO of RTG said, Renzie has been working on this for 6 years & he has shown more compassion & commitment for the lot of Bougainville & the Me'ekamui people & securing their future, each day of those entire 6 years, than BCL has shown in the entire time since the 1997 peace agreement.
That 50/50 jv is 50% to Central Exploration & 50% held in trust by Phillip Miriori for the SMLOLA & Bougainville. If the EL, & eventually mining licence, comes to the Central Me'ekamui JV that 50% will be negotiated within Bougainville for the Bougainvillians. The SMLOLA as landowners will retain a share, the ABG will get some, maybe PNG will get some, the ex-combatants, widows, other landowners will get some.
That 50% will stay in Bougainville & benefit the country.
The JV, through it's preferred developer RTG, have major backers & access to financial markets that will provide debt finance at least to BFS completion so dilution will be greatly minimised. And the first stage, at a cost of less than $1b, will be operational in 2/3 years, much earlier than BCL's proposal, injecting much $$$ into the Bougainville economy allowing it to become self supporting & potentially self governing.
Now that is the factual case for the Central Me'ekamui JV. I didn't come to argue so please don't start asking all your questions again. Do some research, listen to Carrick's interview on RadioNZ, read Carrick's cv on the RTG website & also see the RTG track record there.
Central Exploration & RTG care about the future of Bougainville & it's people as much as you say you do. I'm not sure BCL does but that is my opinion.
By the way, the BCL shares will never get to nothing as they have cash/investments of $70/80 mil. If they do not get the EL & finally move into windup mode 73% of that $70/80 mil will make a good start on reparations & compensation don't you think?
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