"The initial selling off of the Maddingly coal mine buffer zone...

"The initial selling off of the Maddingly coal mine buffer zone is rather a moot point to many. It is now considered last century's problem imho, and much of the Maddingly mine, like Beaconsfield, has become a dump for waste of varying toxicities."

What are you on about? The buffer zone is still active and the area drilled by mantle for JORC has been allocated "extractive industry" status.

"If RIO TINTO have experienced a learning curve via the Bulga precedent ,"

Bulga may be a wilderness, but the area of interest in BM is a saline eroded wasteland.

I like the time lapse image on the link, it shows the mine's overburden replaced and the area where mining was present land is identical to what is was before.