2016 – Rio Tinto cut and run from Panguna
Rio Tinto divests from the Panguna mine in Bougainville, in essence, cutting and running from their responsibility and the liability of cleaning up their toxic legacy. The company does not…
2014 – Rio Tinto refuses to clean up in Bougainville
The governments of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea start planning how to clean up the severely polluted site of the Panguna mine. Rio Tinto was meant to play a supporting…
1989 – Abandoning the Panguna mine and the destruction it caused
As tensions in Bougainville increase due to injustices related to the Panguna mine, the mine is forcibly shut down and eventually abandoned in 1989. With the Bougainville population bearing all…
1972 – Waste dumping starts in Bougainville
Operations start at the Panguna copper-gold mine in Bougainville, an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The mine is operated by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a subsidiary of…
Remembrance, resistance and legal proceedings
…Bougainville for All Bougainvilleans “It is fact that BCL operations in Bougainville were the genesis of the War in Bougainville. The reprehensible misconduct of BCL has caused immense irreparable damage…