Legacy Impact Assessment The Company welcomes and supports an agreement reached by Rio Tinto (which previously majority-owned Bougainville Copper) and residents of mine-affected communities to identify and assess legacy issues linked to the closed Panguna mine. The proposed Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment, announced on 21 July, will identify and assess actual and potential environmental and human rights impacts and develop recommendations for addressing them. The process is to be overseen by a multi-stakeholder committee and the Assessment will be conducted by an independent third-party company or consortium with requisite expertise. The Assessment will be mostly funded by Rio Tinto with Bougainville Copper agreeing to contribute, provided the process and methodology is endorsed by the multi-stakeholder committee; the work can be safely completed, and an appropriate funding mechanism can be agreed. EL1 Tenure The Judicial Review of the decision by the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) to refuse an extension of the Company’s Exploration Licence (EL1) is expected to proceed in the PNG National Court in the second half of 2021. The directors of the Company remain committed to taking all steps to protect tenure. As the matter remains unresolved, the Exploration Licence is deemed to continue until a determination by the court.
These two points are important milestones in the further course of action for all involved.As it has now turned out, the option of the landowner group Panguna with its spokesman Miriori is actually not an option because this financially very weak partner RTG (which Miriori has chosen) does not play in champion league and shows more and more that he is not up to the coming tasks. It is like a snake choking on its much too large prey.This group of landowners must realize or I think they have already realized that there is only one way forward with BCL. This is the way to deal with the problems of the past and the tasks of the near future. In this ongoing process, there will hopefully be so much transparency from all sides that everyone can see what the next steps are, so that there is no fake news that causes nothing but mistrust and stagnation. There was already more than enough of that.
BOC Price at posting:
37.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
