>>61078109
Lets say you are a prospector and, by chance, find a good source of whatever in your local hill (eg privately owned, rare earths/copper/precious metals at a decent concentration). There are a fuckton of regulations that appear reasonable (and generally actually are!), but make it so any large scale economical extraction of minerals takes 5-10 years to even start.
For example, should you be allowed to level the hill or dig to quarter mile depth to extract the ore? The locals will raise hell, saying you disturb their vista and way of life. Any local wildlife or protected species will need to be catalogued and shown how it affects them. The water table must be taken into account and any and all pollution must be extensively documented. The end of life solution (say, 50 years into the future) for the mine must be taken into account and compensation must be paid for any adjacent property owners.
See the problem? Chinks semi ignore these issues and get goverment sponsored governent approved permit within the year and start producing during the year after.