I'm not a lawyer, but to my untrained eye, clauses of interest seem to be:
365 Saving of tenements granted under Transitional Mining Act (1) A licence or lease for exploration or mining granted under the Transitional Mining
Act and in force immediately before the commencement date continues in force
as if issued under this Act.
(2) The holder of a tenement continued in force under this section applies must,
within 6 months after the commencement date, submit all programmes and plans
required for that tenement type, for approval as required under this Act.
(3) If a tenement continued in force under this section is taken to be a mining lease
under this Act, the holder of that mining lease may, within 90 days after the
commencement date, apply for an exemption under Section 125.
(4) If a tenement to which this section applies is taken to be a large-scale mining lease
under this Act, the holder of that mining lease must, within 180 days after the
commencement date, comply with Section 138. 366 Tenements preceding Transitional Mining Act A licence or lease for exploration or mining in respect of land in Bougainville and
in force immediately before the commencement of the Transitional Mining Act is
of no effect. 367 Former holder of special mining lease (1) This section applies to a special mining lease in respect of land in Bougainville
granted, renewed or continued in existence under the National Mining Act or any
other law and in force on 1 January 2011.
(2) The holder of a special mining lease to which this section applies is taken to have
been granted an exploration licence over land the subject of the special mining
lease under Section 100(1).
(3) The exploration licence is taken to have been granted on 8 September 2014, and
has a term of 2 years.
(4) The holder of the licence— (a) is entitled to be issued with a licence in the prescribed form; and (b) is, for the term of the licence (and any extension of the term), exempt from
the obligation to—
(i) have and implement an exploration work programme; and
(ii) meet minimum exploration expenditure requirements; and
(iii) if the holder applies for an extension of the licence – relinquish any
part of the area subject to the licence.
(5) The holder of a special mining lease to which this section applies remains liable for
all environmental, reclamation, rehabilitation, royalty, rent, taxation and
compensation obligations and liabilities that applied to the holder during the term
of its special mining lease.
BOC/BCL are not mentioned by name, but in a previous (14 Aug 2014) release, BOC said:
"The Chairman of Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), Peter Taylor, received a letter on 12 August from the President of Bougainville, Chief John Momis that stated the Bougainville Mining (Transitional Arrangements) Act (Act) 2014 has been passed by Autonomous Bougainville Parliament and will come into force upon notice in the Bougainville Gazette. No date was set for publication of the notice.
"The letter advises as follows with respect to section 212(2) of the Act:
"(1) Prior to that Act coming into operation, BCL is the holder of an SML over the area of the current Panguna SML, primarily by virtue of the operation of the relevant provisions of the Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act concerning the SML;
(2) As a result, when the Bougainville Mining Act commences, section 212(2) will vest BCL with an Exploration Licence for the area of what will then be the previous SML;
(3) That Exploration Licence will give BCL the right to apply for a Mining Lease under the Bougainville Mining Act, while section 66(2), the grant of such a lease will depend on the outcome of negotiations in the Bougainville Mineral Resource Forum."
My guess is therefore that BCL still holds an exploration license, as promised, but I could be wrong, so if anyone with better legal eyes thinks differently, please post.
BOC Price at posting:
30.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)