Science is Ignored When: politics, politicians, cronyism, ineffective regulatory agencies, over reaching regulations, whim of State and Federal administrations, non-compliant regulatory processes, flawed permitting strategies, abhorrent public relations, the media, greed, misdirection, partial and untrue statements, mismanagement, inexperienced personnel, arrogance, reliance on others, and just out right stupidity are and continue to be in play.
Collectively, over the coarse of 30-years and +$1 billion spent, due to this non-sense, science has been replaced by feelings, delusion and ignorance. The pace continues.
This applies to the proponent, public, politicians, regulatory agencies, stake and shareholders. If you want to screw-up a project, this is the poster child off all screw-ups.
100% convinced, with inferred positive economics, and a seasoned major mining company, the project would have a high probability of nearing, if not being in production. In the end, it's only one of the players is responsibility.