See http://www.pngindustrynews.net/storyview.asp?storyid=8682927&sectionsource=s0.

(Article also mentions Barrick Gold, BHP Billiton and Xstrata.)

One of the key proponents of the company’s innocence is major BCL stockholder, the highly-irascible Axel Sturm. In his latest broadside, Sturm accuses Ulster University criminologist, Kristian Lasslett, of using his “academic position as a platform for indoctrination and agitation.”

In fact Mr Lasslett’s critique of the company’s complicity in human rights abuses, during the first 15 months of the bloody conflict, is quite measured. And it’s based on compelling evidence which BCL shareholders – not to mention Rio Tinto itself – would do well to urgently address.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11665.

See also BCL keen to reopen mine, http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/32323.

Last month the President of the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC) Axel Sturm publicly raised concerns over the volatility of BCL’s share prices. In an interview with PNG Industry News, he blamed political uncertainty in Papua New Guinea for BCL’s current woes.

However, perhaps the ESBC’s President needs reminding, the greatest threat to BCL’s future remains its unacknowledged past. Despite revelations aired on SBS last year, which evidenced BCL’s complicity in the brutal security force operations on Bougainville, BCL and the ESBC continue to play down the company’s instrumental role in the conflict.

See http://ramumine.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/the-greatest-threat-to-bougainville-coppers-future-is-its-hidden-past/.

See http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20120213/news05.htm.

See http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20120124/news18.htm.

But the mine produced such a large proportion of the PNG Government’s income that it was not shut down.

Now OK Tedi Mining Ltd has, once again, had to pay compensation for continuing to pollute the environment at its operations in Papua New Guinea.

Grotesquely, the company has also been given an award by the government for “its contribution to PNG’s development and its compliance with the country’s laws”, as well as being a “Good Corporate Citizen”!

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11390.

See http://mekamui.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/bville-mining-lease-expires%E2%80%A8%E2%80%A8/.

See http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/27/headlines/lawsuit_revived_against_mining_giant_rio_tinto_for_war_crimes_in_papua_new_guinea#.Tqmcn7ppz6g.twitter.

See also U.S. Court is prepared to hear Bougainville genocide case against Rio Tinto, http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11270&l=1.

Hannah Lily, who’s with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Pacific Geoscience Commission, aims to help member countries develop the legal framework to allow for deep-sea mining.

Ms Lily says deep sea mining is expected to get underway in the Pacific within two years with Canadian company, Nautilus Minerals, planning to mine sulphide deposits off the coast of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea.

Anglo American is a major shareholder in Nautilus.

See http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=63939.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony of the Paruparu Jaba road the Me’ekamui vice president said the environment should be the first thing people should be mindful about.

“We mustn’t let money lure us into disaster and damage our natural habitat destroying the eco system and we be evacuated somewhere to live,” Mr Takaung said.

See http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20110914/ispost02.htm.

They wanted Rio Tinto to account – and pay massive compensation – for human rights crimes, allegedly committed by its subsidiary Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) before the mine was  closed down by militants in 1989, and the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) tried to reclaim it by force.

For around six years, the PNG government maintained the case should be heard within its own jurisdiction -  not in the USA where public concern and any amount in settlement  would almost certainly be greater. The US administration is believed to have strongly backed this position.

Then, in 2006,  the PNG administration apparently changed its mind.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11164.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11149.

Among the companies affected by this law would be Canada’s Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer, in which a number of UK-based funds invest (see http://moneytometal.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Barrick&go=Go).

See http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201108/s3290464.htm.

Whatever Michael Somare might have done in office (or out of it) over the past 22 years, as the first prime minister of Papua New Guinea he undoubtedly displayed “fibre” in negotiating the terms of the country’s independence from Australia. Not least in 1972, when his government forced a radical revision of the agreement,  brokered five years earlier by Australia with Rio Tinto, to enable the Panguna copper-gold mine on Bougainville to proceed. Last month Sir Michael swore an affidavit accusing Rio Tinto of having financed, and virtually master-minded, the war by Papua New Guinea against Bougainville that followed an indigenous  landowers’ revolt against the mine in late 1988.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11012.

MP blames Rio Tinto for mine losses

Central Bougainville MP Jim Miringtoro has blamed Rio Tinto, the former operator of the now-closed Bougainville copper mine, for the losses. He said the company and the government of Australia were directly involved in the Bougainville crisis and used the PNG government to start a war against its own people for the benefit of the company. Miringtoro said the Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare had revealed that Rio Tinto was directly involved and responsible for the war on the island as reported on the television network SBS. He said more than 15,000 people including PNG defence force soldiers died during the crisis when it started in 1988 and which lasted 15 years.

See http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/20659.

To view the programme Bougainville: Blood and Treasure go to: http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/watch/id/601246/n/Blood-and-Treasure.

To see the transcript of the Bougainville programme go to: http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/transcript/id/601246/n/Blood-and-Treasure.

See also video “Saving Our Land” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvuGPgMhGws.

Workshop begins in PNG for stakeholders in Bougainville’s Rio Tinto-owned Panguna mine

In Papua New Guinea, a weeklong consultative workshop for the stakeholders in Bougainville’s Panguna copper and gold mine started on 5 July in Buka. The huge mine, which sparked the civil war 22 years ago and has remained shut ever since, is at the centre of speculation about when, or if, it would re-open. The workshop involved stakeholders from the Panguna area, political leaders, ex-combatants and representatives from the church, companies, landowners, women and the council of elders.

See http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=61614.

As the government of Bougainville and Rio Tinto call for a possible re-opening of the Panguna mine, political leaders in Papua New Guinea are, in stark contrast, now demanding closure of the Ok Tedi mine within two years. This is the one project in the region bearing closest historical similarity to Panguna. In a statement last week, the PNG political leaders declared that: “We can no longer tolerate this blatant disregard for our river systems, land and the environment that our people live off … The government has compromised our environmental laws by listening [to] utter rubbish from BHP. … Western Province is not a dumping ground but BHP and the national government have made it as a rubbish dump. This is an insult to our people and we cannot allow it to continue”.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10932.