Bougainville 1: Digging the dirt on illegal mining

STEPHEN O'GRADY | Griffith University

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER Professor Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh will lead an investigation into illegal mining on mineral-rich Bougainville Island starting in June.

AusAID has awarded the Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the School of Government and International Relations $613,267 to carry out the three-year project with his colleague Anthony Regan from the Australian National University.

The project, which is funded as part of the AusAID Development Research Awards Scheme, will document the economic, social and environmental impacts of illegal mining.

It aims to identify policy issues that arise and suggest legal regimes and policies that can generate local benefits from mining.

The research materialised as a spin-off from Professor O’Faircheallaigh’s involvement with the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) in preparing for negotiations to re-open a once profitable Rio Tinto copper mine closed after an armed rebellion by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army in 1989.

“There is a significant problem with illegal mining in the region. We were aware it existed, but initially had no idea of the scale of the problem,” Professor O’Faircheallaigh said.

He explained that illegal mining at Bougainville ranges from the activities of international, publicly-listed companies to alluvial mining of the region’s river beds by several thousand locals.

“There are also many who engage in mechanical, hard-rock mining without approval. We discussed this with a legal refinery in the region who told us they know the gold going through the refinery is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Today it remains a region laden with minerals but bereft of the government regulations more familiar to the developed world.

“Safety is a major issue. Without regulation and permits, it means no safety training, no site inspections. People get hurt. We know at least one person has died as a result of illegal mining.

“The economic impacts on the government of a developing country are considerable. We will run a series of workshops in Bougainville to identify the problems and highlight the benefits of taxing mining activities.”

Recognising the potential benefits, the ABG and Papua New Guinea government have indicated their support for the project.

“Engagement with government and with local miners is very important. Miners have to be persuaded it’s in their interest to be regulated.

“Good relationships are critical to a project like this. That’s where we have an edge. We know the place, we know the people. We have established relationships with local stakeholders.

“We have already laid a good deal of the groundwork. A PhD scholarship for a Bougainville student will help us build on that groundwork and develop local research capacity.”

Professor O’Faircheallaigh is optimistic that the strategies developed from the research can be applied to areas in South America, South East Asia, Africa and the South Pacific where illegal mining is also a significant problem.

Comments

[Nevegapa Abeya Sam]

Thanks AusAID for sponsoring this research project on the illegal miners. I will be happy if the research is completed in Bougainville and comes across to PNG.

PNG has alot of mining companies operating and as a citizen I am confused whether they are legally authorised to operate in PNG.

[Tony Flynn]

Graeme Hancock and I designed a sucessful, locally made steel sluice box for small scale miners.

Neither NGG nor Rennisons Goldfields had shown the slightest interest in tasking their engineers with such a design.

None of the major mining companies showed any interest in assisting and legitimizing small scale mining.

It is my conviction that major mining companies have a vested interest in retaining the landowners as clients with middlemen wheelers and dealers; they did not and do not wish for them to be independent operators.

These would be harder to deal with by virtue of this independence.

In general conversations with the Dept of Mines I was told that there was no useful surface gold on Lihir, Misima, Ok Tedi.

Jim Taylor used to drive his long wheelbase land Rover between Goroka and Porgera where he had some alluvial lease(s). He also had tunnel vision which must have been exciting on roads prior to Porgera developing as a large mine.

Porgera threw tailing or spoil over Jim's muskets and the entire alluvials. It would not be allowed in New Zealand or Australia. The alluvials should have been extracted prior to development, probably by joint venture.

However that would have given the landowners a somewhat independent income; this has never been in the interests of large mining companies.

[Leonard Roka]

Here are some other cases for you to investigate

http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2012/12/morumbi-michael-aite-the-avaipa-mining-story.html

http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2012/12/morumbi-michael-aite-the-avaipa-mining-story.html

[Paul Oates]

This article begs the question: 'Why doesn't AusAID also fund an investigation of the effects of legal mining on the PNG people?

After all, it seems only fair to get an holistic rather than selective view of such an important area of operations. Surely it would be in everyone's interest to know what an unbiased and publically funded investigation would reveal?

We don't want to exclude all those other beneficial operations otherwise the 'Executive Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations' might turn out to be skewed in favour of one particular view or another.

Now why for some strange reason do Ok Tedi, Basilisk Bay, etc come immediately to mind.....

[Leonard Roka]

Good work. But just don't call my people who pan for gold on their land illegal miners.

That's our homeland so it is our divine right to pan for gold.

Your job is to identify the foreigners and their partners on Bougainville. I did a little for PNG Attitude on this issue of your interest.

http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2013/02/the-saga-of-alluvial-mining-in-tumpusiong-valley.html