Landowners will share mineral rights, says John Momis

KEITH JACKSON

BOUGAINVILLE PRESIDENT JOHN MOMIS (pictured) has told Radio Australia that his government will introduce laws to allow traditional landowners to share mineral rights with the government.

Speaking with reporter Jemima Garrett, Mr Momis also said the re-opening of the copper and gold mine at Panguna will be on terms dictated by his government.

The Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) was established after the disastrous civil war that raged through the 1990s led to the deaths of up to 20,000 people and destroyed much of the island’s infrastructure, including the mine.

“The underlying philosophy for our new Mining Act is empowering people, giving people the power to make political decisions about development not just being mere passive recipients of benefits,” Mr Momis said.

He said the new laws will give landowners the right to veto any exploration if they believe the developer and the government are not acting in the landowners’ interests.

“They also have the right to object once a development process begins,” he said.

Mr Momis said that, in the original negotiations between the Australian government and Rio Tinto (majority shareholder in Bougainville Copper Ltd) that led to development of Panguna, “their zeal to generate revenue completely ignored the people’s way of doing things.”

“What we are saying is that the resource no longer belongs to the state [of Papua New Guinea], it belongs to the people and to their own government. Rio Tinto will have to deal with us.”

Mr Momis said he was pushing the new mining legislation through parliament much faster than expected “because a rash of small companies are entering Bougainville without permission and signing up landowners to deals with no legal basis.

“My message [to these companies] is that they must forthwith stop. What they are doing is illegal. There is a moratorium [on exploration and mining] imposed in Bougainville.

“We believe one big mine is sufficient and, if pressed, we may allow for one more mine. No more. We know there are possibilities but we are making sure that we first of all make proper use of the revenue generated by the Panguna mine and have it equitably distributed.

“We want to make sure that the current generation, as well as the future generation, are looked after and that we have our own people educated and skilled to handle the problems that the mining process will bring on Bougainville. If we don't then we'll be swamped.

Comments

[Joe Wasia]

Nice article, Keith. Like to read the last paragraph.

President Momis must do it good and proper so the issues relating to this project can never arise again. The 20,000 people lost is enough.

The people want to see Bougainville progress.

[Michael Dom]

A very interesting development in mining policy.

But I agree with Leonard's caution.

It's been said that PNG has some of the best laws in the world. So, why aren't they working?

(Functional illiteracy or my favourite French word?)

[Jeff Febi]

Cheers to President John Momis - a leader with the plight of his people at heart.

From the outset, this law seem like one that will protect landowner rights while empowering them to be decision makers in matters pertaining to resource exploration and extraction.

However only a good government not compromised by corruption will stick to the letters of the law.

So the onus is on Bougainvilleans to always ensure their elected leaders do not deviate from their duty to ensuring this law is strictly adhered to by all participants.

[Leonard Roka]

That's cool but not enough.

Who owns the mining exploration licenses, the 19.5% PNG share in BCL, etc?

Anyway, ABG need to bring more educational infrastructure to Bougainville. It's about time tertiary institutions were built.

Laws are good but it needs an educated Bougainville population to make tangible progress with them.

Tingting tasol.