Transcript
TERRY LARKAN: We are exploring a large area but mining could be a long way off. We have certainly got an exciting area of - geologically it is very exciting and historically there have been shows of gold and copper. And geophysically there are some indications of anomalies or intrusions that would be of interest to the geologists. So we are busy getting exploration work underway onto those areas. And should we find something then we will move into the next stage of proving up a project before we get into any mining itself.
DON WISEMAN: To go mining there under the new Mining Act you would have to have a relationship with a local entity?
TL: Yes the Mining Act has the minerals vested in the landowners, the traditional landowners themselves, not in the state. So you need to have a relationship with the landowners and we have that. Our licences are held jointly. We hold 75 percent of the licences and 25% is held by a landowner organisation.
DW: Bougainville is about to have a vote on possible independence from Papua New Guinea. Does that in any way influence what you may or may not do?
TL: From our point of view no. We will continue doing the exploration work. We don't have a major concern about that. I think investors generally might be a bit nervous about what the implications could be. The Mining Act is essentially the same as PNG except for the ownership of the minerals. In PNG itself the state owns the right but you need the landowner involvement, but in Bougainville the landowners own the right.
DW: The impact of the Panguna mine was seen by many Bougainvilleans as being very destructive both socially and environmentally. What do you say to local people when they bring that matter up, as I am sure they do?
TL: There is no doubt that a number of factors are influenced by interpretations of the historical Panguna experience. Number one often quoted is the environmental, and that obviously is the riverine tailings. Obviously standards have changed worldwide compared to when that was done. Miners were not given any opportunity to do anything about the remediation down there. Obviously with the conflict things closed and things moved on pretty quickly, so that was just left. So I don't think what was done there is acceptable by today's standards, and certainly any environmental studies would have to be done and accepted by the communities before there was any mining. So I don't - yeah from the environmental perspective I think we have standards, both expected by the company ourselves, the government and the people and of course any financiers. They will have their own standards these days. So you just can't do what was done down there. So that is one, but the other side of things is the social impact. It's very important. And again I think a lot of that was to do, at least from what we are getting feedback on was that the lack of widespread benefits felt. So very few people got the benefits financially of the economy and it wasn't really felt throughout the community and I think the relocation of people was another issue raised that they don't believe was done properly.
DW: With those matters in mind what would you do differently?
TL: Well we have started already. The work we are doing at the moment is very slow to get in the field because we have spent - as I said we have been up there nearly two years, this time staying with the community, talking, getting their concerns, formulating ways to address their concerns, getting them involved in our processes, to an on the ground community involved, social, licence focussed operation we are running. I don't think we would be anything like the Panguna operation being down. It would be a very much collaborative process. Also the area here is very sparsely populated, so you won't have widespread relocation anyway and with the widespread community involvement owning 25 percent at this stage of the JV (joint venture) and not having to contribute to development but being participatory in the management and the directorships of the JV, I think we have got good community involvement. Every step is actually a community awareness process and I am going up there again next week and that time is not spent sitting in an office, It is spent in the bush and the communities, having meetings, community meetings, listening to their concerns and basically being part of the community.
DW: So as you say you have had some good shows so you are pretty confident that another two years down the line something definitive in terms of mining will be happening.
TL: Yes absolutely. We plan to have identified a target at least this year, in the next couple of months, to start a drilling exploration programme, which is the next step. At the moment we are doing very light touch. The guys go in and get rock chips, so it's basically going on a walk in the park and coming out with 20 or 30 kgs of rock chips from various places. So there is no environmental impact at this stage. Finding something and proving up a drill target, then that is another engagement with the community because that means putting up a camp and actually starting some serious work in the bush. We are flying geophysics with a helicopter, starting mid-month, next month, because the place really hasn't been explored because when they found Panguna they all focussed on down there and then the troubles came and there wasn't much exploration done on the rest of the island. So we have a small area where we have geophysical data and we have done the analysis and it looks exciting, but that only constitutes about 20 percent of our entire licence area. We have got huge potential hidden under the jungle so we will be flying geophysics to see if that can find or identify any targets, and be really focussed on and work with the community in those areas.
