Source: Melissa Martin, Post Courier

SPECIAL agriculture businesses lease (SABL) titles found to be defective by a Commission of Inquiry are mutating into a new scam.

According to landowners, there are early signs that a new trend of mutation is starting to take shape on defective SABLs, and as such they (landowners) have alerted the public to prevent this trend from taking root.

Source: Papua New Guinea Mine Watch

The Panguna Veterans Association has presented a withering denunciation of Bougainville's proposed new Mining Law and urged the members of the House of Representative to reject it.

A Statement from Chairman Noah Doko and Vice-Chairman Joe Birunoim describes the Bill as a wolf hiding in a sheep skin and accuses the ABG of selling out their birthrights.

But the most critical and worrying part of the Association's analysis is that the new law will lay the foundations for another crisis:

Rio Tinto may have lost the battle in 1990 but, if the Bougainville Mining Bill is passed, they have won the war.

The key section announcing the coup is buried right at the end of the Bill. If passed, Rio Tinto's special mining lease will be converted into an exploration licence, which can then in turn be re-converted into a mining lease under the law.

Why is this a coup? Surely this is a loss for Rio Tinto? Well ...

Source: Post Courier

The reason behind the dispute during the special agriculture business lease (SABL) site in Pomio district has been attributed to land ownership issues.

Norbert Pames from Portion 196C (Pomata Investments Limited) in the Sigite/Mukus integrated project area in West Pomio indicated this when commending the national Government on its decision to cancel SABL projects.

Source: EMTV online

Landowners of the Solwara One, Sea Bed Mining Project in Namatanai District of New Ireland Province want all stakeholders to establish a proper Seabed Mining Act prior to operations.

They say currently, there are 116 tenements for Seabed Mining Explorations and as landowners of the first bed mining project in the country, they want to be recognized as owners of the sea and not users.

Source: PNG Mine Watch

Only a truly great thinker can capture historical motion with such accuracy, that their words can serve as a compass for the years ahead. Francis Ona’s historic address, written in 1989, could have been read out yesterday on the steps of Bougainville’s parliament.

We were forced to become passive observes of our own exploitation, first by the racist colonial administration and after independence by the black political leaders in whitemen’s coats.

Chairman of the Me'ekamui Governmet of Unity on Bougainville, Philip Miroi has stood his ground in publishing a statement that "the ABG enact into law a stand-alone Bougainville Mining Policy that makes a clean break from the past." He has furthermore stressed that the 4th draft May Bill mining policy gives mandate for BCL into Panguna and this is a "dangerous and potentially destabilizing move and is not acceptable to the Me'ekamui."

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Source: The National

RAMU NiCo’s Kurumbukari mine in Madang has been forced to close after a group of villagers damaged properties worth millions of kina on Monday.

Five Chinese employees were injured after the armed villagers stormed into the office area of the KBK mining site of Ramu NiCo, damaging equipment and facilities, according to a company source.

Acting provincial police commander Senior Inspector Ben Neneo has sent a police team, including officers from the Criminal Investigation Unit, to Ramu to investigate. The incident happened around 8.30am.

Source: The National

A COMMUNITY leader on Lihir Island, in New Ireland, says the leaders should now be focused on sustaining the economy after the mine closes.

Lihir Island hosts one of the world’s largest and richest mining projects in being developed by Newcrest Mining Limited.