Page 25 - IB FEB 2019

Business Intelligence - PNG

Panguna Mine owner opposes re-mining

Proposed bills are divisive, says Bougainville Copper

AuSTRALIA-based Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL), the com- After consultation with the newly formed ABG, the owners
pany that holds mining rights to Bougainville’s Panguna cop- agreed to shut it down in 2001 and a mining moratorium fol-
per mine has issued a series of statements expressing strong lowed with the understanding that all mining talks will resume
disapproval over proposed changes to the Bougainville Mining after the referendum, and not earlier.
Act 2015 (BMA). Now with the issue emerging only months before the sched-
Majority owned by the Autonomous Bougainville Govern- uled referendum, BCL is crying foul.
ment (ABG) and the Papua New Guinea government, BCL is “From the company’s own perspective, these legislative moves
listed on the Australian Stock exchange (ASX). Its board is also ignore current court proceedings and BCL’s rights to natural
headed by well-known Bougainvillean businessman Sir Mel justice and they are also at odds with the ABG’s decision to
Togolo. place a moratorium over the Panguna project area. The ABG
“BCL has serious concerns over proposed new mining laws has maintained there should be no discussions regarding min-
that some members of the ABG seem keen to rush through par- ing activities in Panguna until after the referendum,” it said.
liament. The three bills BCL had taken the
that were introduced to ABG to court when the
parliament [recently], latter advised it in 2018
with insufficient stake- that it will not grant
holder consultation, BCL an extension of
are proving divisive at its exploration license
a time when unity is over the Panguna area.
required in the lead- The case is still be-
up to the referendum,” fore the courts.
the company said in “Bougainville intro-
a statement dated 4th duced good laws and
February. regulations in 2015
“If passed, one of the designed to rebalance
bills seeks to amend the Bougainville’s mineral
Bougainville Mining Act rights after a long pe-
2015 to allow a new riod of consultation
company, Bougainville with all stakeholders.
Advance Mining Lim- Now those rights are
ited, to be issued with being undermined in
a special mining license haste by these pro-
granting ‘large-scale Panguna mine .. its abandoned now but there are moves to have it -re-opened. posed changes. Any
mining leases over all genuine investor worth
land in Bougainville available for reconnaissance, exploration its mettle should be able to work within the existing laws. The
and mining that is not subject to an existing exploration license Bougainville Mining Act 2015 therefore does not need to be
or mining lease.’ Leases of up to 100 years could be granted. changed,” the company said.
“These bills mirror proposals put forward by an Australian “BCL urges ABG leaders to think very seriously about the
opportunist Jeffery McGlinn, whose apparent primary business unnecessary divisions being created by these proposed amend-
appears to be horse breeding. In presentations to MPs and oth- ments and instead re-focus on the important work of unifying
ers he has proposed a 40 per cent stake in Bougainville Advance landowners and Bougainvilleans at this critical time for Bou-
Mining for his own newly formed company Caballus Mining gainville, as they prepare for the referendum.”
with other unknown foreign investors and sovereign states. The three bills before the legislative committee are: the Bou-
“These developments raise very legitimate legal, constitu- gainville Mining (Amendment) Bill 2019, Bougainville Advance
tional and ethical questions, not only by BCL and its sharehold- Holding Limited Authorization Act 2019 and the Bougainville
ers, but also by landowners in Bougainville and others in the Advance Holding Trust Authorization Bill 2019.
community. More widely these bills could also be interpreted “We understand the mining bills will be the subject of a
as both anti-competitive and anti-investment which is the last series of regional public hearings by Bougainville’s legislation
thing Bougainville needs,” BCL said. committee through to the end of February, with the commit-
A national referendum for Bougainville’s independence tee’s report to be tabled in March before the bills are further
from Papua New Guinea is due this year as part of a peace considered,” BCL said.
pact formed in 1998 after the decade-long Bougainville civil Panguna is one of the largest copper reserves in PNG and in
war in the 1990s. the world, with an estimated reserves of one billion tonnes of
An estimated 20,000 people died as a result of that war while ore grading 0.34% copper and 12 million ounces of gold.
tens of thousands more were displaced. When it was active, Panguna’s minerals production accounted
At the heart of it was the Panguna mine. for over 45 per Scent of PNG’s total national export revenue.

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