source: PNG Mine Watch 

This Law has taken away the Panguna SML Landowner’s right over their resources by giving easy access to Rio Tinto and its subsidiary BCL. Just have a look at Section 13 then the reverse in Sections 212, 70, 66, and 69. where our ABG Government drives the last and the final nail in our coffin.

Our President and his foreign legal expert, Mr. Tony Regan are lying all the way covering up for Rio Tinto and BCL.

source: PNG Mine Watch

The Momis-Australian economic pact developed since 2010 was sealed through the Mining Bill when it passed through Bougainville's parliament. According to its salesman this economic strategy will bring independence, jobs, money, and happiness.

But there is not one exampleto back up their claims. On the other hand we know from Bougainville's own history, and we know from the history of ex-colonial countries from around the world - still under the hoof of foreign powers - what will emerge.

source: Radio New Zealand

The president of Bougainville says he hopes to have a complete mining law for the autonomous Papua New Guinea province passed by the end of the year.

A new "transitional" law was passed last week to replace PNG mining law, which formalised the province's control of its own resources as laid out in the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

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."