I live in Bougainville and from an on the ground perspective the...

I live in Bougainville and from an on the ground perspective the issue is getting a lot of landowners to agree and cooperate, it is still very tribal here, one village fighting against the next, all day every day. I could tell you hundreds of stories. As I understand there are 16 main landowners @ Panguna, all wanting a little bit bigger slice of the pie than their neighbor. Although there is big $ at stake, everyone knows how tenuous any agreement is. Arawa, the main town near Panguna and where the workers reside is like the apocalypse has happened, burnt buildings, the cops closed shops two months ago, drunkeness everywhere, no infrastructure. A lot of work, a lot of work, before a shovel hits the ground, good luck to any multinational that takes it on becasue they have a lot of problems to work through before they refine copper.