The head of one of the Bougainville landowner groups affected by the Panguna mine, says any decision on re-opening the mine is for the landowners to make.
The Panguna Mine was at the centre of the ten-year Bougainville civil war, forcing its closure in 1989 when it was PNG's biggest export earner.
But there is renewed talk of bringing the closed mine back into production, initiated by the Panguna Development Company Ltd, which has brought together almost all the landowner groups.
Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
Agreement has been reached to support the former miner, Bougainville Copper Ltd's quest for an exploration licence, and for the landowners to be given shares in the company.
There has been widespread opposition to an return to mining at Panguna but Siokate landowners' group chair Therese Jaintong said it's for them to decide.
"The landowners are empowered by the Bougainville Mining Act. So what ever they say they have the power with the government - all of us talking together. We are coming close to finding some good solutions," she said
Jaintong said they wanted to bring all the interested parties together to discuss the mine's futuure.
"We are very genuine that what we want to see is BCL and Rio Tinto and the National Government and the ABG to sit together with us landowners, mine affected, and we come with some plans to find a solution to this," she said.
"There's no use fighting over it and then bringing new issues, new structures, new people - so we are very genuine together."
An abandoned building at Panguna mine site in Bougainville Photo: supplied
The one mine affected landowner group not to sign the resolution is SMLOLA which had been backing another developer.
An organiser with Panguna Development Company Ltd, Jeff Clason, said re-opening the controversial mine remained the best way for the region to develop a viable economy.
Clason said there was support for a re-opening, especially when other options for Bougainville are thin on the ground.
"In this age and what we are going through, we already voted 98 percent for independence and if they can come up with another strategy to make Bougainville we'd listen to them. But they haven't come up with anything mate. As you the bottom line is every country needs money."
