It is not boring, it is sobering to realize what is at stake, and I wonder who are the leaders or institutions one can trust to figure these things out?
Hi Arde,
Firstly, if your son is interested in further discussions about what we do as a company and the ups and downs of whats possible in mining I would be happy to impart an old grey headed (how I wish I had enough grey to cover my head
) business mind. I am certainly not technical, as I like to say, we have 100 people in our company and I make sure every single one of them is smarter than I.
On to your question - It's a tough one to answer, but if you asked me to answer it in short order "Get money out of politics".
One side after receiving money for their campaign will shout "remove red tape' ...........as long as it doesn't impact them or their family, not caring about the environmental impact.
The other side will say "we have to protect the environment" unless you make a big contribution to my campaign.
Best example I can give today that North Americans will understand. Teck, massive Mining company, massive coal assets in Canada, Canada has pretty decent environmental rules, both federally and even more in BC. Yet Tecks ability to play the politicians mean they have different rules to all the other miners up there. I have absolutely no doubt, if Glencore win their current bid for Teck, and they do not have the political impact in Canada Teck has, the coal mining assets will very soon have to adhere to the same regulations as the rest BC.
Many more nuances and permutations, but if you asked me for one possible answer, this would be it.