Bougainville update
Published by MAC on 2007-05-29
Bougainville update
29th May 2007
Rio Tinto, through its subsidiary Bougainville Copper Ltd, has re-affirmed its "rights" to the huge Panguna copper-gold lease on Bougainville and the Papua New Guinea government has "welcomed" the company's call for cooperation between "stakeholders".
However, the key parties in brokering an agreement to re-open the mine are the Panguna landowners, whose views have not been canvassed - let alone backed by implementation of the principle of "free prior informed consent"