What fools we were to think:
The rule of law existed in Mali
The Junta would respect their own country's laws, international commercial conventions, and the very foundation of capitalism in the ltd liability company concept.
We should have known the Junta would reject all of that and chuck a hissy fit, especially about their own laws in allowing the previous owner to bank a billion dollars in profit and walk away with zero enviro bond paid. Clearly that was our fault too and we were justly punished for it.
Yep, the Government that banked a few hundred million in profit from the mine couldn't possibly contribute either...it was all OUR fault, the guys that LOST $200 million trying to bring the mine back to life and keep it going.
But yeah, clearly keeping employees across both companies was a mistake, but tbh I don't think there was anything we could have rationally done here that ultimately would have made a difference. This was an academic, a nationalist mining minister acting out of spite, for what he saw as the all the wrongs done to Mali over the last 40 years in the mining industry...and then directing the Junta to blaming us, the minnows/the dupes for it all as the only target he could hit. And they didn't miss.
