And in an unsuccessful class action, launched by Bougainvilleans in the United States in 2000, Rio was accused of collaborating with the PNG state to commit human rights abuses during the conflict and was also sued for environmental damages. During its operation from 1972-1989, the mine operator, then a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, dumped one billion tonnes of mining waste into Bougainville's rivers with devastating environmental consequences. A peace agreement was signed in 2001 and Bougainville was given greater autonomy within PNG, with a non-binding referendum in favour of independence . Kalia counts former Defence Minister David Johnston as its chairman and Perth-based mining entrepreneur Nick Zuks as its top shareholder. International Organization Foundation How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Landowner concerns with their treatment when the mine was previously operated led to civil unrest and closure of the mine. A BCF official informed me that during a security operation in March/April 1989, "forty, fifty villages, and the crops [were destroyed]. One of the key proponents of the company's innocence is major BCL stockholder, the highly-irascible Axel Sturm. Heavy machinery mines the mountainside 1:30. Be the first one to, THE BOUGAINVILLE COPPER PROJECT 1970s PANGUNA NEW GUINEA COPPER MINE PROMO FILM 69684, 69684-the-bougainville-copper-project-vwr, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). The mine itself and specifically what some saw as the inequitable sharing of the profits played a part in precipitating almost a decade of civil war between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Bougainville beginning in 1989 and led Rio Tinto to abandon completely the mine by 1990. New methods of commerce are employed 21:30. Such past shortfalls aside, Adams said that Rio Tinto has since agreed to more stringent environmental requirements for other mines. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer. Were working to restore it. Following the discovery of vast copper ore deposits in Crown Prince Range, Bougainville Copper Limited (Bougainville Copper or the company) operated a large open pit mine and processing facility at Panguna in central Bougainville in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between 1972 and 1989. On November 23, Bougainvilleans will go to the polls and are expected to vote overwhelmingly for independence from Papua New Guinea. Large dumb truck rolls through the mine 20:55. [7], A referendum on Bougainville's independence must be held no later than June 2020 under the Bougainville Peace Agreement. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have confirmed that representatives of Mr Forrest's mining company, Fortescue, travelled in recent months to the island and were exploring growth opportunities there. 2023 Getty Images. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. RTG claims BCL has lost its local goodwill and cannot operate in Bougainville, and that RTG has the support of a landowner group the Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Landowners Association - one of the groups who say they represent landowners in the Panguna area. They also used information from stories compiled by the Catholic Diocese of Bougainville from affected communities between 2017 and 2019. The two governments signed a peace deal in 2000 under which Bougainville remained part of PNG but was allowed a measure of governing autonomy. Uploaded by The complainants say by not ensuring its operations didnt infringe on the local peoples human rights, Rio Tinto breached OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises. Photo: Francis O'Neill, April 1994: . Excavating begins in the Crown Prince Range 9:21. The Mobile Squads were responsible for numerous atrocities on Bougainville during 1989-1990. The Panguna mine was operated by BCL, majority owned by Rio Tinto, for 17 years from 1972 until 1989, when operations were suspended due to an uprising against the mine and subsequent civil war. Vacuum filters remove the water from the copper slurry in the containers and dried for shipping 5:03. Bougainville Copper mine in PNG shut in 1989 on stock market TWENTY four years after the world's largest copper mine was closed due to a civil war, the majority Rio Tinto - owned Bougainville Copper Limited still floats on the Australian Stock Exchange. More than 30 years later, The situation is worsening, as waste continues to seep into the regions rivers, said Keren Adams, legal director at the nonprofit Human Rights Law Centre in Australia. John Cannon is a staff features writer with Mongabay. Though in light of the above, I would suggest - to borrow the words of Mr Sturm - it was in fact those scholars and journalists that rejected the allegations made against BCL by landowners and activists who might be accused of being "naive", after all accessible documentary evidence on BCL's involvement has been available since 1990 (following a Supreme Court of Victoria court case involving BCL and their insurers - BCL records are also stored in an archive at the University of Melbourne and may be viewed upon request). Read more: Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763 and the first recorded settlement on the island of Bougainville. In response to my article the President of the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper composed an open letter addressed to me. Collect, curate and comment on your files. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com, There are no reviews yet. The Sherratt Family, UK. Over 10 years we help companies reach their financial and branding goals. This highlights the enormous challenges in seeking redress from mining companies for their operations in foreign jurisdictions, and, in this case, for historical impacts. Taylor said he was more optimistic about the future of this company than any year out of the previous 20 years. The petition has brought the plight of these communities back into the media, but calls for Rio Tinto to clean up its mess have been made for decades. Mining giant Rio Tinto Group, which was historically Bougainville Copper Limited's major shareholder, exited on 30 June 2016 when it transferred its 53.8 per cent shareholding for distribution to the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. BCL should immediately remove from its Board of Directors, Sir Rabbie Namaliu who was appointed in March 2011. In particular Axel G Sturm argued: "Your disgraceful lampoon is remarkable. These allegations were previously denied by BCL's former Chairman, but Dr Lasslett insists on their veracity. But Bougainville Copper simply abandoned the site in the face of a landowner rebellion. If the ESBC wish to restore the integrity of BCL, then they should forward the following demands to BCL's Chairman and Managing Director Peter Taylor: 1. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. Moreover, noted McLeod, Bougainville is "right in the middle of a number of territories in the South Pacific. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of tailings were deposited in the rivers. The transnational company Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a joint venture of the Australian based companies Conzinc Rio Tinto and Broken Hill Corporation, began prospecting in 1963. View of Melbourne, Australia 12:09. Heavy trucks sit rusting on the edges of Panguna copper mine, closed in 1989 as a result of sabotage.Credit:Friedrich Stark / Alamy Stock Photo. Luke Fletcher, a long-time Bougainville watcher and executive director of think tank Jubilee Australia warns of the resources curse that has plagued PNG. Moreover, in a blog post, it is clearly impossible to add more context, which would help readers understand some of the complex factors influencing BCL's decisions. The war continued well after the mine closed as a battle of control for the country raged between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. While the arrival of the mine brought infrastructure and helped to modernise Bougainville, perceived inequities in the distribution of compensation and . Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. The disposal of hundreds of millions of tonnes of tailings into the Kawerong-Jaba river system created enormous problems. The first Bougainville independence movement began to arise in the late 1960s, as people began to air their grievances against the then Australian colonial government over the handling of the Panguna mine. Opened in the late 1960s and early 1970s, The mine at Panguna was officially opened in 1972 and was majority-owned by Rio Tinto. This letter included comments that bordered on the slanderous. Explosives are set under rocks 9:45. Men discuss the new project in Papua New Guinea 10:35. A. They, and others, sent the complaint to the Australian OECD National Contact Point after lodging it with Melbournes Human Rights Law Centre. Part of the gigantic Panguna copper mine, one of the largest copper and gold deposits in the world. Battle intensifies over Bougainville copper mine and civil war legacy SBS is an Australian public broadcast service. Bougainville has a long human history with the first inhabitants arriving around 29,000 years ago. She acknowledged that environmental standards at the time were very, very poor in comparison to what would be acceptable today, but even those werent followed. Man in the laboratory testing the soil for copper content 8:54. The mine at Panguna was opened in 1972 and was majority-owned by Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian multinational and the world's second largest metals and mining corporations 10:00. You shall not use your academic position as a platform for indoctrination and agitation.". Bougainville Copper Limited 10:15. Bougainville Copper (ISIN PG0008526520) is an Australian-listed copper company which lost its main asset due to a civil war on the island of Bougainville during the 1990s. Rio handed its shares in Bougainville Copper Ltd to the Autonomous Bougainville Government and Papua New Guinea in 2016, judging that the Panguna mine was too risky to develop. The pulp is sent to the flotation station 4:15. They did everything, I mean we spent lots and lots of money, to provide backup support services for the operation. Environment Minister Sussan Ley faces a critical test: will she let a mine destroy koala breeding grounds? In turn, the landowner groups supporting BCLs plans to reopen Panguna have also come under fire. This is evidenced in meeting minutes dated 8 June 1989. On the 23rd of April 2012, Act Now posted a blog I had written on BCL and the Bougainville conflict [see above]. Iron ore magnate Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has joined the race with an unruly bunch of small, struggling mining companies, all with links to Australia and share prices of 10c or less, for access to some of the worlds biggest copper and gold deposits on the Pacific island of Bougainville. Bougainville landowner groups were called to vote on allowing BCL to renew their mining licence and potentially reopen the Panguna mine, but lacked support. The Rio Tinto spokesperson said that when it gifted its shares of Bougainville Copper, the arrangement provided a platform of support for the PNG Government and the Bougainville government to work together on future options for the resource.. A recent example is when, after Rio Tinto divested from Bougainville Copper in 2016, former Bougainville President John Momis said Rio must take full responsibility for an environmental clean-up. Rio Tinto, therefore, is of the view that it is for the people of Bougainville to determine their future, including any potential redevelopment of the mine.. In a memorandum dated 6 December 1988 he recounts his reaction to the Prime Minister's proposal: "The PM's priority was to 'appease' the landowners. Matthew G. Allen has received funding from an Australian Research Council fellowship DE140101206. These interviews were triangulated through extensive documentary research, using internal BCL records including meeting minutes and company memorandums (these documents became available following two court cases involving BCL and its parent company). That legislation was later rejected by the government's legislative committee, illustrating how politically contentious this issue will be in an independent Bougainville. While it is our belief that from 1990 to 2016 no Rio Tinto personnel had access to the mine site due to on-going security concerns, we are aware of the deterioration of mining infrastructure at the site and surrounding areas, and claims of resulting adverse environmental and social, including human rights, impacts. Local residents informed me it was tens of metres deep in places. In 1968 elections were held throughout Papua New Guinea. That's how they worked. Traditional earth-moving methods are employed 16:00. Produced by Bougainville copper proprietary Limited and Bechtel WKE. PeriscopeFilm The board is led by chairman Sir Melchior Togolo, a prominent Bougainvillean, with extensive experience in the minerals sector. The movie opens on a beach with palm trees. BCL should demand that Rio Tinto - its parent company - cease contesting litigation taken by Bougainvillean landowners in the US, and fully compensate those victimised by the security forces using BCL property/facilities. The Panguna mines footprint was gigantic, stretching across the full breadth of the central part of the island. A Shell gas station 21:35. BCL operated the copper, gold and silver mine at the Panguna mine on Bougainville Island in PNG from 1971 to 1989. Jungle vines are cut back 15:10. More than 150 people in Bougainville have filed a complaint against the embattled Rio Tinto company. The ore processing consists of four stages as the rocks are crushed into less than half inch units 3:40. Banner image of the Panguna mine tailings wasteland courtesy of the Human Rights Law Centre. I also interviewed senior state officials in Papua New Guinea, including the former Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu (1988-1992), and senior military officers involved in the operations on Bougainville. MELBOURNE, July 21 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) said on Wednesday it has reached an agreement with stakeholders of the Bougainville community to look into potential environmental damage. BCL is an independently managed company of PNG that is working towards the vision of resuming. BCL regularly met with military commanders from the PNGDF and senior Cabinet figures. They cannot rely on the land anymore to produce what they need.. 7. 2:56 pm on 1 June 2022. Melbourne Australia 10:06. You know we gave them everything, because as a far as we saw it we were hoping that they were going to solve the situation, so we could start operating again. 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