Bougainville copper shareholders call for independent inquiry
ESBC's comment: The ESBC are not aware of the existence of such group of BCL shareholders. Until now the ESBC are the only organised group of shareholders. It holds a stake of about five percent in BCL. Caroline Le Couteur is a former politician of the Australian green party. Her statements are friendly but naively verbiage. It contains issues which are not new. The interview is so far a non-event.
A group of shareholders is calling on the Rio-Tinto subsidiary, Bougainville Copper to appoint an independent jurist to conduct a full inquiry into the involvement of the company in the civil war on Bougainville, before it goes ahead with any plans to re-open its mine.
The move is being co-ordinated by a new lobby group, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.
Prior to taking on the job as the Centre's Executive Director, Caroline Le Couteur, spent 17 years on the board of Australian Ethical Investments Ltd, a company with more than $700 million under management.
Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speaker: Caroline Le Couteur (pictured below), Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility Executive Director
LISTEN HERE !
LE COUTEUR: I think the biggest issue still burning in Bougainville is the results of the civil war in Bougainville. As you may be aware, between ten and twenty thousand people died after conflict broke out in 1989. During that period there was clearly involvement of both Bougainville Copper and the Papua New Guinea government and I think the wounds from that are still not have still not healed that is the biggest issue. There is also, of course, the issue of the major environmental effects the mine has had and the economic issues of just compensation and who gets the significant financial rewards from, the potential financial rewards from the mine.
GARRETT: Why are shareholders interested in this issue?
LE COUTEUR: shareholders are interested in this because clearly the mine at Panguna is potentially a very valuable mine. It's potentially the largest copper and gold mine in the world and it is in the interests of shareholders in Bougainville Copper that it open but only if it opens in a way that does not have the sort of conflict and problems that were there before. We want to see it re-open and in a way that everybody is happy with it.
GARRETT: The Bougainville government and landowners and, in fact Bougainville Copper, are already involved in a lengthy process to do just this. Why isn't that enough?
LE COUTEUR: Well, I think as Bougainville Copper was a significant part of the previous problems. I mean we can argue about how big the part was but I think everyone would agree that they were a significant part of that. I think it is important in terms of having a fresh start for Bougainville Copper, that we are starting again, that we are listening to the people of Bougainville and that is why we are looking for an independent person to, on behalf of Bougainville Copper, to look at what the issues are and how things can be better in the future. There is no interest for shareholders obviously in repeating the problems of the past. We want a positive future and that will only be a positive future if the people of Bougainville feel it is going to be a positive future.
GARRETT: You say you have put these two resolutions on the agenda of Bougainville Copper's annual general meeting in May. Have the resolutions been accepted by Bougainville Copper and what is the process from here?
LE COUTEUR: OK! They are on the agenda for Bougainville copper's annual general meeting. We are confident that some of them, at least, will be passed and the reason that we are confident is that, as you are probably aware, Bougainville copper's largest shareholder, 53 per cent owner, is Rio-Tinto. And some of the initiatives that we have asked to be passed are things that Rio Tinto has already committed to. We are specifically asking for Bougainville Copper to agree to three international agreements about good operations as a mining company; the UN (United Nations) Global compact, there is the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the International Council on Mining and Minerals. All of them have commitments Rio has made. All of them , we are confident, that Bougainville Copper should be able to sign up for.
GARRETT: Have you approached other shareholders in Bougainville Copper about this?
LE COUTEUR: We have approached Rio Tinto and in fact we are meeting with Rio Tinto in a couple of weeks. We have tried our utmost to approach the PNG government, because as you might be aware they area nineteen per cent shareholder. At this stage we haven't received any reply to our letters to the PNG government. We have been to their embassy in Canberra. We actually paid for an advertisement in the local newspaper because we have failed to contact the PNG government. We are also hoping that the advertisement in the paper will be a way of informing other shareholders because quite a few people who live in Bougainville and PNG are, of course, shareholders in Bougainville Copper.
BOC Price at posting:
53.0¢ Sentiment: ST Buy Disclosure: Held
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(20min delay)