Look we could carry on these arguments forever; none of us is...

Look we could carry on these arguments forever; none of us is 100% right.

By any assessment of the situation, after the mine closed Bougainville went backwards and only more recently seems to have regained its equilibrium. The political landscape with the ABG etc has much improved. It has been very good to see this as an outsider and credit must go to the tireless work by all of the groups and people involved (including BCL, for many years by necessity from the sidelines).
The damage that has been done in the immediate area of the open pit can't be undone - meaning the hole in the ground is still there, relocated villages will never go back to their original 1970's spot. And we should dispel the notion of a "toxic wasteland" etc too.

While the landowner group that Phillip Miriori purports to represent would be entitled to be more aggrieved than anyone over past evets and is an important voice in how the mine is redeveloped, what seems to be clear is that they don't oppose redevelopment (and neither do the other eight landowner groups); just who should do it. That in itself represents enormous progress although unfortunately it has resulted in the current impasse which is the subject of National Court proceedings.

The connection of RTG to the project is as an opportunist - that's fine as far as it goes, that's the nature of junior exploration/mining companies and there are plenty of others that Philip Miriori could have enlisted. Central Exploration Pty. Ltd. (CEPL) headquartered in Lane Cove, Sydney, (and which RTG has an investment in, as referred to in RTG reports) is as crudely opportunist as they get and seems (from the RTG report) to have been the conduit for RTG's involvement.

The virtues or otherwise of RTG can be extolled ad nauseum in this forum but the one thing that RTG doesn't have is a legacy to protect. The board of BCl could have packed up their bags and their money and given up on Bougainville years ago; simply watched from the sideline while the interminable squabbling etc continued. To their credit they have steadfastly promoted and advanced the reopening of the mine with the hope, among other things, of recreating for the current generation of younger Bougainvilleans the educational and career opportunities that were taken away from an earlier generation in 1989. Some will refer to environmental damage as the legacy (Phillip Miriori makes a big issue of this in today's press release). It's an easy shot to fire from the standpoint of 2017. Remember that in 1987 BCl committed over $100M to the installation a tailings pipeline that they never had the opportunity of commissioning.

Since the mine closure numerous charlatans and carpetbaggers (no doubt some with ties to billionaires) have swanned past with their opportunistic promises regarding the mine - none of these has come to pass, for a host of reasons, as we sit here 28 years later. Is Philip Miriori's association with CEPL going to prove any more fruitful? Does RTG have the wherewithal and commitment to grind through the long process to a restart. And we can forget the ludicrous 3-4 year restart timetables that have been claimed by Phillip Miriori (again in today's press release)? If this is a central plank of his support for RTG then he (and RTG) should tell all of us (including importantly the landowners who are signing the petition that we hear so much about) exactly how this is going to be achieved and for the very low capital cost of $950M (as per today's press release). Of course the fact that RTG does not own the rights to the resource (orebody) model puts them well and truly at ground zero in the development timeline.