"I think it is over. SNEY is probably kaput. Is it an empty shell now??? Anyone actually communicated with any 'officers' of the company?"
"In a country filled with gold, rare earths and diamonds -- how is it that startups aren't wildly successful?"
Those of us who aren't too lazy to do so have. You should try it.
As to your second question, try government roadblocks to outsiders as a possibility. A way around that might just be a collaboration with another entity with closer ties to the government. Just food for thought. :-)
If anybody thought they were gonna make $$$ running a few river dredges, well that's just laughable....all this talk about the REEs and black sands and I'm just sitting back lol'ing