A decade ago, landowners profoundly impacted by Rio Tinto’s Panguna copper-gold mine in Bougainville tried to bring the company to court in the USA, using the Alien Tort Act.
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.