In its heyday, the mine, which would take an estimated $US5 billion in infrastructure spending to restart, was a productive asset for Rio Tinto, then known as Conzinc Rio Tinto. London Calling asks: did Rio Tinto fund war on Bougainville? The Bougainville Copper Project. RTG claims BCL has lost its local goodwill and cannot operate in Bougainville, and that RTG has the support of a landowner group the Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Landowners Association - one of the groups who say they represent landowners in the Panguna area. Consistent with business development activities, representatives from Fortescue have visited Bougainville Island to learn about the region and potential opportunities., Businessman Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest during a state dinner in Washington in September.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen. "President (John) Momis has been proactive in assisting the company carry out safety work. The one thing both have in common is their respective share prices are in the gutter, with BCL trading at 10 cents a share and RTG trading at 6.5 Canadian cents (7.4 cents). Bougainville has voted to become a new country, but the journey to independence is not yet over. Production of plant items begin in are shipped to New Guinea. And it's based on compelling evidence which BCL shareholders - not to mention Rio Tinto itself - would do well to urgently address. 3. As the last ten years has proven, Bougainvilleans are a forgiving people. 3. Equipment from Japan arrives for storage at the mine 24:00. A total of K1,088 million was contributed to the National Government, which represented 62 per cent of the net cash generated by the project between 1972 1989. These allegations were previously denied by BCL's former Chairman, but Dr Lasslett insists on their veracity. Picture taken March 29, 2017. Bougainville Copper says its main objective is to work cooperatively towards realising the vision of resuming active exploration and sustainable copper, gold and silver mining at Panguna, in central Bougainville, after mining ceased in 1989. BCL should immediately remove from its Board of Directors, Sir Rabbie Namaliu who was appointed in March 2011. Bougainville Copper now has three offices, located in Port Moresby, Buka and Arawa. Bougainville Copper has a strong local board and management team that knows Bougainville extremely well. 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PANGUNA, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Sep 7 2016 (IPS) - The Panguna copper mine, located in the mountains of Central Bougainville, an autonomous region in the southwest Pacific Island state of Papua New Guinea, has been derelict for 27 years since an armed campaign by local landowners forced its shutdown and triggered a decade-long civil war in the late 1980s. Country Partnership Strategy: Papua New Guinea, 2021-2025 INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH ASSESSMENT A. We are ready to enter into discussions with the communities that have filed the complaint, along with other relevant parties such as BCL and the governments of ABG and PNG. Bougainville displays great cultural diversity in a relatively small region. I think communities would welcome them doing that, if they were there for that reason.. (AAP Image: Ilya Gridneff) The Bougainville Government has also criticised the consortium for paying landowners who support them and implied it is not respecting the approval process. Traditional earth-moving methods are employed 16:00. Communities around Rio Tinto's (ASX, LON: RIO) shuttered copper mine in Bougainville face a serious threat of flooding due to. Here you can read our near-verbatim reports on all debates, including oral questions and proposed laws (bills). In 2014, the governments planned to figure out how to clean up the site, and Rio Tinto was supposed to have played a supporting role. Today, its in the immediate vicinity of the abandoned mine pit. The Panguna mine was operated by Bougainville Copper (BCL), majority owned by Rio Tinto, between 1972 and 1989, when operations were suspended owing to an uprising against the mine and subsequent . Ben Bohane is a Vanuatu-based photojournalist. By the time the hostilities ended in 1997, thousands of Bougainvilleans had lost their lives, including from an air and sea blockade the PNG military had imposed, which prevented essential medical supplies reaching the island. 7. The natives of Papua New Guinea are to be trained to work in the copper mines 14:03. The London-based parent company continues denying any wrongdoing, even though a US federal court has agreed to hear some of the charges being levelled against it. A peace agreement was signed in 2001 and Bougainville was given greater autonomy within PNG, with a non-binding referendum in favour of independence . On 1 July 2016, Bougainville Copper Limiteds major shareholder, Rio Tinto, transferred its 53.8 per cent shareholding for distribution to the Autonomous Bougainville Government, for the benefit of Panguna landowners and the people of Bougainville, and to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. Economic structure and growth 1. "Due to the loss recorded and the need to preserve cash for future development the company will not pay a dividend. MELBOURNE, Australia An independent investigation will begin on Tuesday into the environmental and human rights impact of an abandoned gold and copper mine in Papua New Guinea . Heavy fuel storage tanks 11:30. Bougainvilles president John Momis has copped much criticism for entertaining the Caballus deal, and the Autonomous Bougainville Government has given mixed signals on its position on mining. It was a resentment bred of an insensitive approach on the part [1], The mine at Panguna was opened in 1972 and was majority-owned by Rio Tinto. They were the only ones that could come, and put a lid on this thing before it got out of hand" (Personal Communication, 2006). BCL is an independently managed company of PNG that is working towards the vision of resuming. Read more: [5] This research suggested that BCL placed pressure on the PNG government to assert its authority on Bougainville, following acts of industrial sabotage. It was operated by Bougainville Copper Limited, a subsidiary of what is now Rio Tinto, until 2016 when Rio handed its shares to the governments of Bougainville and PNG. The Panguna mine is a large copper mine located in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in the east of Papua New Guinea.Panguna represents one of the largest copper reserves in Papua New Guinea and in the world, having an estimated reserve of one billion tonnes of ore copper and twelve million ounces of gold. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of tailings were deposited in the rivers. Credit:Ben Bohane. Joe Stevens emailed from Western Australia: My name is Joe Stevens, I first went to Bougainville in 1969 and remained until Feb 1990 I worked for Pioneer Concrete for two years, then BCL Civil Works, Laurie Mentze, Ross Wilson, Ian Garside and Win Spurr. Engitech is a values-driven technology agency dedicated. In an interview with PNG Industry News, he blamed political uncertainty in Papua New Guinea for BCL's current woes. For example, BCL was informed by the Minister of State that the security forces were planning to use "brutal firepower" to resolve the situation on Bougainville. In recent months, the mudslinging by supporters of both groups has died down. This was largely triggered by the mines environmental and social impacts, including disputes over the sharing of its economic benefits and the impacts of those benefits on predominantly cashless societies. The mine produced copper concentrate that also contained significant quantities of gold and silver. That move left Bougainville Copper as little more than a shell company, Adams said, without the resources to mount such a formidable cleanup effort. She and her colleagues contend that shedding its shares in Bougainville Copper, which controls the still-abandoned mine, does nothing to absolve Rio Tinto from its responsibility to improve the lives of the people who are still affected by the mining operations to this day. We believe that [Bougainville Copper] was compliant with applicable regulatory requirements up until the mines operations were suspended in 1989, a spokesperson told Mongabay. BCL did not alert the domestic or international community of the impeding humanitarian crisis. Adams team cataloged the fouled water supplies that force communities to depend on drinking water piped from long distances upslope. President Momis asserted that progressing with BCL could "cause a total explosion of the situation again". But Bougainville Copper simply abandoned the site in the face of a landowner rebellion. The Mobile Squads were responsible for numerous atrocities on Bougainville during 1989-1990. More recently a new player, Caballus Mining, has arrived in Bougainville. Sadly the Chairman has passed away, and I have not been able to confirm the veracity of this particular allegation. As a leading mining company with world-class expertise, we constantly assess opportunities to build on our operational reputation to drive future growth through product diversification and asset development, chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said. As one woman from Dapera told me in 2015: I have travelled all over Bougainville, and I can say that they [in Dapera] are the poorest of the poor. The two governments signed a peace deal in 2000 under which Bougainville remained part of PNG but was allowed a measure of governing autonomy. Computers tabulate the needs for materials and labor 11:52. I remained somewhat aloof during the controversy elicited by an SBS report in June 2011, as I feel my research speaks for itself - on reflection, I perhaps erred in not correcting factual inaccuracies that were subsequently reported in the media (see Callick 2011). "There are activities on foot in several areas that can positively assist Bougainville Copper Ltd make a return to profitable mining," he said. They would love for Rio Tinto to come back and listen to them face to face about the problems that they have. Yet this reconciliation to some extent holds a key to international reconciliation among Bougainville, Australia and Papua New Guinea". Matthew G. Allen has received funding from an Australian Research Council fellowship DE140101206. "Again, the landowners will be informed and involved as appropriate. A man uses a 3-D map to plan the excavation 11:04. The Panguna copper mine in Bougainville was closed in 1989.Alamy "There is at times frustration when some purporting to speak on behalf of all landowners are in fact representing a narrower interest. The company purportedly aided the security forces by providing them with trucks, fuel, accommodation, communications equipment, storage space, messing facilities and office resources after concerns about human rights abuses became apparent. The disputes between miners have been reflected in intense politicking among local landowner groups and political players on Bougainville. Narrators John Worthy, Sam Bena. Thats what communities want, Adams said. [11], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}61855S 1552947E / 6.31528S 155.49639E / -6.31528; 155.49639. 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