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Panguna copper and gold mine once generated over 40% of PNG’s GDP.
Papua New Guinea’s autonomous region of Bougainville passed Friday a new mining bill that strips significant rights from Rio Tinto’s (LON, ASX:RIO) subsidiary Bougainville Copper Limited (ASX:BOC).
The ruling formalizes the province’s control of its own resources, which means the national PNG mining law no longer applies and that the agreement under which Bougainville Copper ran the Panguna open cut copper and gold mine for 20 years has been eliminated.
According to Radio Australia, locals worry the legislation —which transfers powers over mining from the Papua New Guinea government to the local legislature — gives too much power to Australian copper, gold, and silver company Bougainville Copper, whose Panguna mine sparked a civil war in the 1990’s and has not seen mining activity since then.
The internal conflict, which came about in part due to a demand from Bougainville rebels for higher mine royalties, and their anger at alleged environmental destruction, resulted in an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 deaths.
Philip Miriori, Chairman of the Me’ekamui Government of Unity, a rebel group based near the mine site, told Radio Australia the legislation was “dangerous” and “potentially destabilizing.”
But Bougainville President John Momis defends it: “I firmly believe that we have done has been practicable,” he told Island Business, adding the law is a “transitional” one and that the long-term law is still being developed.
Image from archives.
5 Comments
John A
Why no journalist has the guts to publicly admit that this civil war was about stealing monies from the mining company and power grab by few local illiterate “leaders”? And whatever reason anybody may have had to be unhappy (yes, nothing is perfect in this world), was it worth the 15,000 local lives lost, hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed and all the island infrastructure wrecked for two generations, not to mention all the monies lost by the local communities over the last twenty years because the mine was shut? Why the Australian media even now publishes interviews with some these bandits, no better than the Arab terrorists who behead people and bury women and children alive in Irak and Syria, and therefore encourages such crimes against humanity. Why the same journalists are ready to beat the drums, yell and cry if a bird is possibly sick due to mud discharged by a mine, but do not seem to care at all when thousands of people are killed for nothing because of these terrorist “freedom fighters”? This civil war (same as all other civil wars) had never had anything to do with the environment or fair compensation for the locals. This kind of bloody chaos is always about a desire by few to get a lot of monies for doing nothing and become somebody to be feared by the nearby clans.
Some local people (especially the ones who could not get a job at the mine due to total lack of skills and desire to work) think that the mining companies gain billions of dollars just by digging dirt, refusing to even consider that billions need to be invested and risked before any gain is made, and there are always few opportunists without scruples who take advantage of these simpletons. I worked in such a mine in PNG and every time when the company increased the payments to the local community (and this mine gives tens of millions of dollars every year to each level of communities, from local villages to the national government) , there were always new groups of local drunkards who wanted more and attempted (and at times succeeded) to disrupt the mine operations.
Mike Failla
They must be democrats. Trying to get money for nothing at your expense. Stay away from this place. its not the jungle that causes the problems it is the inhabitants of that jungle, once again money for nothing. How much was lost over the last bout of stupidity?.
Getreal
The islands would have remained intact & peaceful if Rio had not gone in & dug a big hole in the ground & caused division among the locals. The people would have simply lived of the land & the ocean like they did for thousand of years, content. The real thief here is Rio & its cohorts, making hundreds of millions of dollars while paying peanuts royalties to the islanders. And when the war broke out, the PNG army was using helicopters provided by the Australian Gov’t to kill the Bouganvillians! I currently work for Rio, I know the history, Rio’s screw up in Bouganville caused the books of community engagement & public relations to be re-written!
Steve S
Steve S
Another point of note that many overlook is the high quality training and mentoring that was provided to the Bougainvillien people. Those that undertook traineeships, trade training and an array of other initiatives gained some of the best learning and development skills ever seen in PNG. This is recognised across the country and is a credit to all who had a part to play…providers and recipients alike. This should also be seen as a great loss for generations to come.
Pennie Gamoga
Bougainville Mine was the best in the world and Bougainvilleans are the biggest losers.