Bougainville landowners warn companies at Panguna mine to stop work

A group of landowners in the area of the Panguna mine in Bougainville has issued a public warning to companies trying to redevelop the mine to stop work and leave.

Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and Indian company Lloyds Metals and Energy Ltd have been told by the landowners via a public notice to stop what the group called 'unauthorised entry and activities' at Panguna.

ASX-listed BCL is the long time exploration licence-holder for Panguna, while Lloyds is the company that the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) recently nominated as a partner to redevelop the mine.

The Panguna mine contains one of the world's large copper reserves but has not been operational since tensions forced its closure 37 years ago in the embryonic stages of Bougainville's civil war.

The ABG is keen to redevelop the mine in order to help Bougainville become economically self-reliant, as it seeks independence from Papua New Guinea whose national parliament is this year expected to decide whether to ratify Bougainville's 2019 referendum result.

Redeveloping the mine to production phase is expected to take years, but efforts towards achieving this are gaining pace. With ABG's approval, and in partnership with BCL, Lloyds Metals has recently moved machinery and equipment into the Panguna mine area in order to conduct feasibility and exploration work.

Redeveloping the mine to production phase is expected to take years, but efforts towards achieving this are gaining pace. With ABG's approval, and in partnership with BCL, Lloyds Metals has recently moved machinery and equipment into the Panguna mine area in order to conduct feasibility and exploration work.

However this week, as a local event was being held this week in the area to discuss the mining plans, with involvement of the ABG and both companies as well as landowners and community members, a group of landowners has decided the mining activity is moving too fast.

The protesting landowners have given the companies notice of 24 hours to remove all personnel and equipment from the mine.

"Failure to comply will result in us taking necessary actions to protect our indigenous lands, resources and territories in accordance with our indigenous ownership rights and relevant legislation and regulatory frameworks in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea," the notice said.

Consultations

One of the Panguna landowner representatives who put his name to the notice is paramount chief Moses Pipiro who said local people were not comfortable with the companies working up at the Panguna mine already.

"They already shipped their machinery up there, trucks and excavators, all these things," he said.

"The problem is our government didn't consult and run the awareness to the resource owners in Panguna. That's the first thing. The second is we didn't know what sort of agreement has been made between our government and Lloyds Metals and Energy Ltd."

But a Local Level Government leader denied this claim, saying the ABG had been holding consultations with the community over plans for the copper mine.

Ioro Constituency chairman Francis Nasia said he was involved with facilitating the consultations.

"Almost everybody got the got the information about how the ABG intended to sign the MOU and how ABG intended to connect Lloyds with BCL. It was all clear.

"Those few people who were signing this Stop Work (notice) and all that, they have been attending the meetings, but they haven't been voicing their thoughts. They have been given time to talk."

Nasia said the majority of local people supported what the government was doing to explore redeveloping the mine.

RNZ Pacific has sought comment from the ABG, BCL and Lloyds Metals.