Bougainville Copper

Shareholder structure

Major shareholders are Rio Tinto (53.6%), Papua New Guinea (19.1%), and the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC) with approx. 4%. The remaining freefloat of 23% is held by private investors. The Company has had no access to the mine since the conflict began in 1989. The mine is controlled today by the Me'ekamui Tribal Government of Unity ("MGU"), led by President Phillip Miriori, the brother-in-law of the late revolutionary leader, Francis Ona, who died of malaria in 2005., and .

History

The mine at Panguna was opened in 1972 and majority-owned by Rio Tinto.

The mine was vitally important to the economy of Papua New Guinea, but the people of Bougainville were seeing little benefit from it. The PNG national government received a 20% share of profit from the mine, of which the Bougainvilleans received 0.5% - 1.25% share of the total profit. The mining company hired thousands of workers from PNG outside the highlands, and deposited tons of toxic waste in the island's rivers, damaging the environment.

The first Bougainville independence movement began to arise in the late 1960s, as people began to air their grievances against the Australian colonial government over the handling of the Panguna mine. Australian External Territories Minister Charles Barnes was accused of telling the Bougainvillean people they would "get nothing". The issue of compensation went to the High Court of Australia, where it was found that the compensation was inadequate under ordinary federal Australian law, but that as an External Territory, Papua New Guinea was not guaranteed the same standards that applied to mainland Australia.

In 2010, using interviews with BCL executives and internal company documents, Dr Kristian Lasslet of the University of Ulster published findings linking the company to war crimes during the period of civil war. This research suggests that BCL placed significant pressure on the PNG government to assert its authority on Bougainville, following acts of industrial sabotage. The company aided the security forces by providing them with trucks, fuel, accommodation, communications equipment, storage space, messing facilities and office resources, even after their human rights abuses became apparent. Although these allegations have been denied by BCL's current Chairman, Dr Lasslett insists on their veracity, citing numerous recorded interviews with company executives and a large cache of BCL records, all of which evidence his findings.

In his first statement on Radio Australia Pacific Beat on 8 June 2010, the newly elected President of Bougainville, John Momis, declared that the Panguna mine has to be reopened to assure economic growth of Bougainville in the future.

As a result of substantial lobbying by MGU, the ABG stripped BCL of its mining rights in 2014.

US lawsuit

Citizens of Bougainville have filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States against the British-Australian company, Rio Tinto for claims arising from the environmental damage caused by the mine and war crimes occurring during the civil war years. In August 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected Rio Tinto's effort to dismiss the claim. See Sarei v Rio Tinto, 456 F.3d 1069 (9th Cir. 2006).