Sewell - I am not going to defend lack of compliance to regulations - companies I meet with regularly claim to comply (or make their best effort to comply) - I'm sure there are non compliers and/or lazy (or badly funded) regulators - unfortunately there are always bad actors. From discussions I have with Australian miners - regulation are enforced and miners do not want the bad publicity (and hassle/penalties) of not complying - ESG hurdles are also now in most of their incentives and as such non-compliance hits them directly in the hip pocket. I'm sure that overseas there are jurisdictions (e.g Africa, China, Russia etc) where standards are poor (and corrupt) but none of us can change the world. My point is that we can only do what we can in our own jurisdiction and currently that is pretty good - our major uranium producer (BHP - Olympic dam) would not want to be seen to be polluting the environment and intentionally evading regulations.
I also clear that in the past evasion (particularly in developing countries) was rife (and corrupt in developing countries). One of my first formative experiences (in the late 60's) was in the southern US states where oil & gas companies simply paid (the local mayor) for permissions and licenses. At that time in the uranium industry it was simply a matter of getting the uranium out of the ground (to make weapons); pollution (and safety) didn't matter much. In Russia there were terrible examples of wastes going directly into rivers, however there is little point on going on about the past - what has happened cannot be changed; all we can do is to not repeat past errors and practices and I am confident that in western democracies that is being done and is very high on corporate priorities. By not mining here (and similar minded countries) all you are going to do is push it into administrations that do not really care.
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