bougainville mine reopening sought

http://www.thenational.com.pg/051208/biz1.htmBougainville mine reopening sought
LANDOWNERS at Bougainville Copper Ltd’s Panguna mine area have “unanimously” agreed to invite the company to consider re-establishing the big open pit mine.
A response from Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and BCL was not immediately available, but industry sources believe it will cost at least US$1 billion to reopen the mine and it could take three or four years before it is brought back into production.
In a brief statement released last Friday, they said the two main landowner groups, the Panguna landowners association and directors of road mining tailing leases “have met with BCL” and unanimously agreed the company should return to Bougainville.
The statement was signed by the chairman of PLA and RMTL Michael Pariu, the vice chairman of PLA Chris Damana, director of RTML Severinus Ampaoi and RTML’s director and company secretary Lawrence Daveona.
Company representatives have been unable to visit the mine area to reassess the situation there and will only be able to do so with the approval of the ABG.
A spokesman for the group said ABG President Joseph Kabui had already been advised of the views of the Panguna landowners, who have jointly drawn up a “draft supplemental Bougainville Copper Agreement”.
The statement said: “We demand that ABG unanimously endorses our draft agreement in their next sitting.
“We further demand that ABG gives this a top priority for agreement with the National Government in the next JSB (joint supervisory body) meeting scheduled for the end of June.”
The landowner group believed that the reopening of the Bougainville copper mine at Panguna would deliver about K5 million worth of benefits on a daily basis to Bougainvilleans.
They said that in order that reconciliation proceeds speedily, funding assistance through the local Member of Parliament would be necessary from ABG, the National Government and from BCL.
Under the proposal put forward at BCL’s annual general meeting last week, the Panguna landowners suggested that dividends flowing from the landowner share of the mine will be split 50:50 with half going to all adult Bougainvilleans and the remaining half to landowners.
They said royalty payments should be made on a monthly basis to individual title holders.
They have also recommended that any company taxes flowing from the mining operation should be split evenly between ABG and the National Government.