Supreme Court Supports Panguna Landowners SMLOLA Press Release 9 July 2021

SPECIAL MINING LEASE OSIKAIYANG LANDOWNERS ASSOCIATION INC (5-4832) Level 2, Karoona House Panguna Town, Panguna District Autonomous Region of Bougainville
SUPREME COURT SUPPORTS PANGUNA LANDOWNERS 9 JULY 2021
In a landmark case, which will have significant ramifications for the reopening of the Panguna Mine, the Supreme Court of Victoria (“Supreme Court”) has dealt a major blow to Bougainville Copper Limited (“BCL”), the former owner of the mine, who initiated the litigation against RTG Mining Inc in Victoria. In its decision, the Supreme Court noted BCL’s responsibility for the Panguna Legacy Issues including the environmental damage and social issues at the Panguna mine. In the same judgement the Supreme Court said that the members of the Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Landowner Association (“SMLOLA”), and they alone, are the customary landowners and only they have the right to grant access (or deny access) to the Panguna Mine site. The Bougainville Mining Act (“Mining Act”) confers ownership of the minerals on the customary owners of the land within the original Special Mining Lease area and they are all members of SMLOLA. The Supreme Court utterly rejected BCL’s baseless allegations that SMLOLA members had been paid unlawfully. The Supreme Court noted that SMLOLA had acted lawfully, in accordance with its Articles of Association and the Mining Act, when it entered into a joint venture with Central Exploration Pty Ltd and nominated RTG as its development partner. The Supreme Court said that the members of SMLOLA were perfectly entitled to work in the pursuit of the Joint Venture objectives and were legally entitled to be paid for that work. The Court also noted that no allegations or insinuations had been or should be made against RTG. The Chairman of SMLOLA, Philip Miriori said: “This is one of 8 legal actions BCL and its associates have launched against SMLOLA, even using the Rio Tinto Bougainville 30 year legal team based in Melbourne in this case. BCL and its associates have lost every single action, had costs awarded against them in every case, and twice the Courts in PNG have ruled these actions are an abuse of the Court process.” “All these actions had no merit and judgements confirm BCL have been profoundly wrong.” The Supreme Court held that given the BCL legacy issues were real and burdensome and a simmering source of resentment by the Landowners, it was not at all surprising the Panguna community opposed the renewal of the BCL EL 01. The Supreme Court noted that BCL had not been able to secure a land access agreement with the Customary Owners In the proceedings commenced by BCL in the PNG court seeking judicial review of the decision of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (“ABG”) not to renew BCL’s exploration licence, the full bench of the Supreme Court of PNG has approved the joining of the SMLOLA-Central JV entity, to the proceedings despite BCL’s opposition, a further significant loss for BCL. The Chairman of SMLOLA, Philip Miriori said: “SMLOLA believes that the benefits of Panguna should be shared with all Bougainvilleans.” “SMLOLA is immensely proud of its track record of saving Panguna for all Bougainvilleans, opposing the numerous cronies that attacked us under the previous Administration.” To achieve this outcome, given it is not possible to transfer ownership of Customary Land, SMLOLA has offered a wholly owned subsidiary of the ABG (pursuant to S43 and other provisions of the Mining Act), an Agreement under which SMLOLA would agree to the grant to the ABG’s subsidiary of a mining lease, which would prescribe terms and conditions on which mining can be conducted on the SMLOLA members’ customary land. SMLOLA recognises that the ABG and President Toroama will determine a development plan for Panguna that benefits all Bougainvilleans and has said that the Panguna Landowners remain ready and supportive of the Government when they are ready to progress discussions on the redevelopment of Panguna.