"people are sitting on piles of cash looking for good projects.”

Wrong, they are looking for projects on which they can make a profit. Many projects look good on paper but when it comes to shovels the price escalates and those very people run for the woods.
I give Noront's nickel ore as prime example.

100B$s needs to assure a return of about 150B before there would be gambling participants. So the question that is not answered is - 100B invested would provide what returns?
Until there is a good answer there is no movement and just talk. That is where these academic reserchers fail, they provide the question instead of the answer.

You have heard from Ed The Pessimist.