Bougainville update
Published by MAC on 2007-09-04
Bougainville update
4th September 2007
The self-styled European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper recently issued another
press statement, seeking to pre-empt decisions over the future (if any) of the eponymous copper-gold mine at Panguna. This time it's calling for the area to be designated a "welcome zone." (sic)
It doesn't require much intelligence to deduce just who the group wants to be greeted with open arms.
But communities in the constituency surrounding the mine site take a markedly different view.
In an agreement signed last week, the autonomous provincial government (ABG) agreed that no decisions will be made about the mine's future, unless and until major safeguards have been implemented.