the ranger mine is dead, buried and cremated

quote from today's Australian

Rio Tinto is to provide its 68 per cent-owned uranium subsidiary Energy Resources of Australia with a $100 million credit facility to ensure the $500m-plus rehabilitation of the Ranger mine inside Kakadu in the Northern Territory is fully funded.
The no-interest loan comes with the condition that ERA does not seek to extend the production life of Ranger beyond 2020 by developing the Ranger 3 Deeps underground resource, and has been welcomed by the traditional owners, the Mirarr people.
As it is, all mining and processing must cease by January 2021 under the existing Ranger authority, one that the Rio and the Mirarr people do not support being extended, scuttling ERA’s life extension plans.
ERA has been working on what its options beyond Ranger are, with a report due by the end of the June quarter. It has said the review was about “identifying executable options to maximise shareholder value’’.
Ranger is now treating stockpiled material and continues to generate cash. During 2015 ERA added $72m to its cash balance, taking it to $433m, but leaving it short of the estimated rehabilitation cost of $509m.
ERA said that while it expects to be able to fully fund the rehabilitation, there could be a situation where it might have to draw on the Rio facility.
The rate of cash accumulation over the last five years nevertheless suggests ERA could end up with a cash surplus to the rehabilitation costs, raising the prospect of an eventual capital return to shareholders, depending on what plans for ERA’s future emerge from the strategic review.
The Mirarr people said that credit facility was a “vital step towards the rehabilitation of the Ranger mine”.
Senior Mirarr traditional owner Yvonne Margarula welcomed the news: “I am happy that ERA has listened to us.”