Pessimism vs Optimism, page-88

Good call, and you're right about the water. I have to agree that it will be challenging. It will come down to politics and whether the various governments want to support it. Which will in turn depend on size. 1Mtpa could be both good and bad - less political importance but less environmental and community issues. So could 20Mtpa, for the opposite reasons. I'm hoping the size of this thing is something in the same order as Boddington, which I believe processes about 35Mtpa since the restart 10 years ago. Maybe 10-20Mtpa could be more realistic.

Whatever the case, you're talking about needing to buy thousands of hectares of prime farm land, probably with a buffer zone as well due to light pollution, blasting noise, etc... Plus there are a lot of subdivisions up that way now - 5-20 acres lots. Parents taking kids to school on the same roads, all that sort of thing. Anything in the forest will of course be subject to many years of environmental and heritage surveys with strict regulation and monitoring. Everywhere will be subject to erosion control and water clarity / runoff prevention. I remember 30 years ago just the dieback control requirements at Boddington were fairly onerous.

And of course there's the army training area up that way - I remember as a kid going for firewood in there because you needed permission. It is one of the main SAS training grounds.

So there will be challenges. But nothing insurmountable with a bit of political will.