Alluvial Gold Mining in the Panguna’s Tumpusiong Valley

Leonard Fong Roka

After 1997 when the Bougainville Peace Process slowly gained momentum the people on the coastal plains of Nasioi, especially around Arawa, slowly began to rehabilitate their old cocoa and coconut plantations. On the higher altitudes like Panguna where cocoa does not yield, people sought means to earn the cash the coastal people were enjoying; most young men began to labour for the coastal people.

For those in the village it was a search for a resource that would counter the cash economy the coastal people were enjoying. Panguna people attempted butterfly, coffee, vanilla and the spice farming but it all did not work well to their liking.

So by chance in 1998 the Moroni and Dapera villagers began the sharing tales of the world oldest precious mineral, gold. They knew for oral history had it that it was first mined in the mountains of Kupe in the 1929 to 1930 era; and the Barapinang (what is now Panguna area) much later.

They knew also the tales of the heydays of the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) that gold was processed in the Panguna mine’s concentrator within their reach thus they began to sample the area; using old methods of panning, they discovered the valuable mineral of the world since the Biblical times was there waiting for them.

A gold rush dawned. People as far as Siwai in South Bougainville and Arawa in Kieta’s east coast flocked into Panguna to tap in. The BCL tailings affected Tumpusiong Valley people also joined the rush for gold money.

By the mid-year of 1999, the entire Concentrator Zone of the Panguna site began controlled by the landowners and a few BRA leaders. Tumpusiong miners were slowly pushed to the periphery thus their numbers slowly declined from the scene.

Doing nothing back in their homes they slowly developed a thought that the vast sedimentation the BCL and Rio Tinto dumped into their valley came from Panguna so there must be traces of the old valuable mineral in store for them.

So without the entire valley knowing a person by the name of Boniface Arunara in late 2000 began sampling for the mineral his people were kicked aside for at Panguna mine site. He did love to pan at Panguna before but sadly he was wounded by the Papua New Guinea military in left leg and thus he does not walk long trails.

Arunara identified the mineral at a spot known as Sinari-tave in the Tumpusiong Valley. He secretly mined it for a few weeks but he was discovered and excitement diffused so the entire valley was searched and gold uncovered and mined as off.

Gold panning turned the Tumpusiong living standard positively high according to Bougainville measures and scales. Small businesses mushroomed and everybody has money earned with hard clean labour.

Pakia Gap

By Leonard Fong Roka

 There is no other road on Bougainville central mountain backbone, Crown Prince Range, except the Panguna mine’s Port-Mine-Access road. The highest point of this road is called the Pakia Gap (picture); it is cold and foggy and refreshing to us travellers. It is also history and politics for us Bougainvilleans and also the post-conflict political problem.

I celebrate Pakia Gap’s significance in my own way for it is my pride when people talk about the blessing they feel passing Pakia Gap.

 To the Torauan paddler and his sea, it is too high

To the South Bougainvillean coastal man, it is too freezing

But to the Panguna man, it is sweet home, motherland;

The table for the two ridge divided Ioros kisses: the Pinenari and the Kavarongnari.

 

Bone freezing winds chills

Ear sweetening songs of the bush soothes

Eye narrowing fog blankets

Virgin bush caresses your spine

And the weary traveler is in Heaven.

 

From the east and the west coasts, cars climb

Snail pace and in agony your brae of bitumen road;

From the west they tally their gain from Camp 10 and Shoofly Corner and I get you,

Pakia Gap. From the east they rung you from Pakia to Policeman Corner and Finger Point and I get you,

Pakia Gap.

 

She dawns on the weary traveler:

Bone freezing winds chills

Ear sweetening songs of the bush soothes

Eye narrowing fog blankets

Virgin bush caresses your spine

And the weary traveler is in Heaven

And fall his own way home laughing.

For Pakia Gap is sweetness to the Bougainvillean.

 

Pakia Gap is where the Bougainville east coast and west coast rub noses

Pakia Gap is where Ioroan lovers kiss

Pakia Gap is where history Bougainville modern history opens

Pakia Gap is where politics is trapped

Pakia Gap is where peace must born

Pakia Gap is where Bougainville belongs; and

Pakia Gap is freedom!

Call on ABG to create opportunities for Students

Leonard Fong Roka

The Divine Word University’s Department of PNG Studies & International Relations requires its Third Year students to at least undergo part-time job exposure over the break and at the beginning of their Forth Year; they have to provide the Department with a certification of their experience to the Department for assessment and valuation of the student.

To this a Bougainvillean student from Lonahan village on Buka in PNG Studies & International Relations department, Ancitha Semoso (pictured), is sending email after email with her letter of interest and references attached to offices in Buka with hope to secure a position.

‘I did send emails to government departments of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and NGOs on Buka,’ she told me, ‘but nobody is responding that positively to me. I hate that attitude of ignorance by a Bougainville on a Bougainville.’

She did write to other organizations in Port Moresby for the part-time jobs opportunity that is an academic requirement for her. A few did accept her interest but suggested that they won’t provide her with accommodation. Thus she is sad and looks nowhere but want positive answers from Bougainville.

‘I am a Bougainvillean; I am the future of my island,’ the 23 year old said frustratingly. ‘And those old folks in the Bougainville government need to give me a space to gain practical experience instead of being overloaded with theories that otherwise will not help me out in the future.’

She emphasizes that one Bougainville problem is that the ABG is not investing more on its future human resource.

‘Bougainville is on a political journey,’ she told me, ‘and that needs us the young generation to be nurtured now and be prepared to take on the challenges of leading our Bougainville after the scheduled referendum on independence that is some three years away.

‘We will vote for independence but is our ABG grooming us to take on the responsibilities of leading our own country?’

Miss Semoso had written to the ABG parliamentary services; she had written to the Bougainville administration and the World Vision, but till now she is waiting to be positively responded upon by the various government bodies and NGOs.

‘When I do not secure a part-time job outside of Bougainville,’ she said, ‘I won’t be hurt. But when the organizations I wrote to on Bougainville, where I call home, I am really sad. I am asking, ‘Are our leaders on Bougainville really dedicated to freeing Bougainville based on the facts or reasons that our people had fought and died for since 1988?’’

Ancitha Semoso wants Bougainville to have programs those students in tertiary institutions outside Bougainville must be subjected to every year when they return home.

Delpine’s Six Weeks at Bogia of Madang

Leonard Fong Roka & Delpine Piruke

She left Madang Teachers College (MTC) on the 27 of July and headed north to Madang’s last district, Bogia, to do her six weeks of primary school teaching practical. In isolation she was from Bougainville and Madang town but there was a world before her.

Delpine Piruke

Delpine and her group of 9 other trainee teachers took off on a Saturday and were on the road for 6 solid hours keeping me connected every minute through texts on her mobile phone from the fully packed transport she was on.

Six stressful hours we were on the road from MTC. I was worried living Leonard, my husband-to-be behind; that was a pain I was with all through the journey. To keep that under control, I ordered my fiancée to keep his phone on so I feel peace when my texts were received.

This did work; for if not of that I could have left that practical and be back here in MTC so I can regularly visit my hubby and spent time with him.

For Delpine, as she admits it, the journey was through an unknown world of Madang and not her Buin in South Bougainville. She says a significant number of the Madang people by the North Coast Highway live a traditional life; nothing is new or modern, as she saw it from the MTC hired transport as they passed each village.

And I could claim that Madang people are quite hesitant to pursue change through development and that is so obvious to from the fact that Asians and other PNG people, especially the highlanders and the Sepik are now in control of the Madang Township.

Nearly all villages by the roads are built of traditional materials. She says she saw domesticated animals in the midst of the village just like Bougainville’s Buka communities; ruggedly dressed children waved at them often making her feeling Bougainville open to her.

We arrived at 7 o’clock at Munumbo, the primary school I was to be doing my practical teaching in the Bogia District of Madang Province. But 7 o’clock is pitch-dark in Bougainville but not here in Madang; maybe Bougainville time is an hour ahead of Madang.

But the Munumbo community was real good people and friendly but more so in terms of money they were a bit poor. Unlike Bougainville, there was a clear lack of retail outlets in the village, so their shopping destination was Madang town that was 6 or 7 hours to the south.

And as I did told Leonard earlier, upon the advice of other travellers, there was no Digicel mobile coverage or the coverage was weak that phone calls or texting with him would be problematic; to get proper connection there were few hotspots to access the network but you have to stand or hold your phone in a right position.

Monday we begin work. I was given the duty of teaching Grade 7s because others were a bit hesitant to get the higher graders. And the problem was that the school lacked resources and materials both for us teachers and students. So we have to improvise; that is, we have to create mostly from little materials we have to impart something on the students. But the problem is that you would not know whether you are having the students gleaning anything at all. This really frustrated me.

Yes and Delpine so often went onto a spot in the house she and other female trainees were accommodated in to decant her frustrations on me, really a man without any connection to the teaching industry.

It was annoying for me, when the lecturers at MTC were arriving once in a week to assess us teaching and observe our planning of lessons yet they knew that Munumbo was really a forgotten school by the Madang provincial government or the national government as well.

Worst for me also, is the fact that some of these students I was taking were older than me. Back at home, in Bougainville I could accept this because we have missed out on education in the 10 year crisis but Madang has no excuse. There should be the right aged students but they were good students. 

Anywhere, she says that peer evaluations did help out. This is when every trainees came together to share their lesson planning and so on to each other for analysis.

All in all the experience was great for me to return back to Bougainville with and help my Bougainville students. I feel confident that I will deliver the best teaching service to my people especially the students in Panguna where I am moving with my fiancée this December.

So after the six solid weeks in the north coast of Madang Delpine returned back to MTC on the 7 of September.

                    

BRA and Ona, names that carried hope but brought disaster

Leonard Fong Roka

Ages of suppression, exploitation and indoctrination of the Solomon island of Bougainville and its people brought about the anti-Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and Papua New Guinea (PNG) government and people rebellion in late 1988. It was a violence to shut the Australian Panguna mine in the heart of Bougainville that was championing the exploitation of the land; it was a violence also to free Bougainville from the stinging political, economic and social claws of PNG, and built a new nation in the heart of the Pacific.

Bougainvillean with a gun

It all unfolded in Panguna in Central Bougainville in 1988 when the late Francis Ona and his band of followers now known as the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) executed a sabotage campaign on BCL properties and threat to its employees in order to put an end to a mine that promised so much but gave very little to Bougainvilleans. 

What a great organization for betterment, was the Bougainville Revolutionary Army for the exploited people of Bougainville.

Bougainvilleans like James Singko, Sam Kauona, and Francis Ona and so on did created drive to put people first in every form of development in the South Pacific. That is, the state or investor must involve the land owner as the primary stakeholder when forging any form of development on the land.

But the question for the Bougainville leaders is: Did they ever know the scale and scope of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army? Through the eye of history, the group and their leader Francis Ona could be said to have lacked the idea and purpose of what they created.

When studying the Bougainville Revolutionary Army from the historical angle, the element ‘Revolutionary’ is the subject matter. Did the Bougainville leaders pursue the negative or positive side of this term, revolutionary?

Revolutionary, according to Oxford Dictionary, is involving or causing dramatic change or innovation. But did late Francis Ona and his followers have a study on the concept in regard to their island home and people?

From the historical backdrop, it’s crystal clear that Bougainville leaders in the jungles around the Panguna mine in the late 1980s were running after a positive revolution. After years of struggle against the mining company, the colonial administration and the PNG government they were now fixed to fight for a positive change on Bougainville. And that change, must come at the shortest period or within the lifetime of those leaders.

History will not deny that the late Francis Ona had the vision for a better Bougainville but the problem with his leadership was that he was not capable to translate that vision energy into political leadership of the 1990 Bougainville.

There was also a trap of personal glory in his leadership, too. In a letter dating 20 December 1989 addressed to his sister Mrs. Cecilia Camel who was to be his spokeswoman at a PNG, landowners and Bougainville meet the following week, Ona had 4 demands. The first was ‘That the National Government recognize and declare that Francis Ona is the winner over the Bougainville crisis and the National Government the looser of the crisis’ and signed by a Bruno Kobala for Francis Ona.

Ona did not know that personal interest and people interest were two conflicting issues when he wanted to lead the Bougainville people to freedom.

As the said supreme commander of the BRA and leader of Bougainville people he absolutely lacked the political power to influence and instigate unity and order across Bougainville in a period the population were psychologically scattered by the revolution of shutting down a huge Panguna mine; removing of all non-Bougainvilleans and the control of Bougainville by the young locals with guns.

So when the political vacuum created by the departure of the PNG state and the dissolving of the provincial government opened wide, the late Francis Ona was lost. He was shocked and watched as his BRA plunders Bougainville into chaos. He watched as his BRA created division on Bougainville with their reckless pursued of personal interest.

Francis Ona’s leadership loses control of Bougainville as Bougainvilleans turned against each other off-track from his dreamt revolution for a prosperous Republic of Bougainville.

So he too forgot his loved term ‘revolutionary’ in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army which he was a supreme commander of and began his buck-passing game or a blame game that someone else was causing harm on Bougainville.

Bougainville Manifesto 7: Sources of Conflict

Leonard Fong Roka

In terms of strategic political leadership, the late Francis Ona should be considered lacking vision and planning capacity. For him, shutting the Panguna mine was the determining factor of his status and power over Bougainville; he was the liberator and thus the ruler of Bougainville.

In 1990, all the praises he received from Bougainville when the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) and Papua New Guinea government left the island blinded his conscience to fill in the power vacuum on Bougainville. He, with his power, isolated himself from the public and tried to play the role of a supreme being ruling Bougainville through orders from his Guava village.

As he hid himself, the late Joseph Kabui, struggled to play the leadership role leading the politically scattered Bougainvilleans under the abusive and disorderly Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) that were now preying on the very people whom they claimed to defend against external exploitation and indoctrination.

Thus it is obvious Francis Ona was lost in the tangle of politics he had just created. Taking off to shut the Panguna mine on a rung of family feud, he was now trying to stand on the independence rung; the internal BRA sparked chaos rung that ignited the civil war; the re-infiltration by PNG army rung and so on. He did not strategize his war based on historical facts and experiences.

All these, got him off-track from the Bougainville problem that began with the arrival of colonialism in the Solomons. The question: “What is wrong with Bougainville?” was not answered by Francis Ona when he decided to wage war against PNG and BCL.

But the Bougainville problem was not a 1988 issue as many blindly promote.

Bougainville Manifesto 1 tells us: ‘Our islands’ world was made up three parts that are the flesh that is me the human being; the nature that surrounds me, such as the trees, caves and so on and the marriage between the flesh and the nature; this is the spiritual world that governed and is governing my people since time immemorial.

The human being depended on the nature and the nature depended on the spiritual world that united the man and the nature. The bond between the three was respect and respect! The upset of one is the disadvantage of the world’.

Broadly speaking, Bougainville crisis began with the dawn of colonialism. Bougainvilleans were subjected to exploitation, indoctrination and genocide by firstly, the colonial powers, and later with much more intensity by the PNG government and people.

Under the stinging colonial administration of British, Germans, Australians and the Japanese Bougainville faced the worst ruthless exploitation. Oral history and written records highlights a wide range of subjections. Bougainvilleans were cheap laborers, sexual subjects, human commodities in black birding and isolated bystanders of their wealth.

They stood by as their plantations were servicing colonial masters and PNG laborers shipped in boatfuls; they were forced to despise their traditions and swallow western religions and other secular ideologies without a chance to voice their epistemological views about their land. Bougainvilleans were used to destroy their own land and life.

Worst case is the Australian and PNG exploitation of Bougainville minerals in Panguna to fund the development of PNG and not Bougainville.

Parallel to exploitation, indoctrination is denying Bougainvilleans their right to progress for the better. In my PNG ATTITUDE article, A mission to articulate what makes us Bougainvillean (September 2013), outlined my islanders fate as: ‘But PNG’s seven million people do not acknowledge the distinctive qualities of Bougainville’s 200,000 people but rather indoctrinates them to pave the way for exploitation and eventual genocide.

The fate for Bougainvilleans starts from the PNG Constitution. The very first line in the Preamble, “We, the People of Papua New Guinea— united in one nation…” is the foundation of indoctrination of Bougainville people.

Under the real definition of the term ‘nation’ PNG is not a nation but a country of 800-plus nations. Building a country on lies brings disaster and PNG experiences that in the form of corruption, crime and so on.

PNG further enforces this lies on Bougainvilleans through the education system. PNG has an education system that does not respect Bougainvilleans but rather, it is a curriculum that turns Bougainvilleans away from their origins or roots’.

This erupted with the colonial administration and grew worst since 1975 and Bougainvilleans were swimming in it in tears and still in the post conflict Bougainville, we are still submerged in it.

Though the killing of Bougainville began with exploitation, indoctrination took over with the dying years of colonial rule. Thus, today, indoctrination is backing exploitation and side by side, the pair would lead to eventual genocide of Bougainville.

Genocide on Bougainville was and is so protected by religion-backed humanistic thinking. Yet, history knows that Christianity centered legal norms were the ones justifying the European to call the indigenous peoples of the colonized world savages and kill them to take over their land to finance the industrial revolution in Europe.

 Humanistic Thinking, example, human rights, thus is the Third World’s guillotine if one is not allowed to interpret it from own realistic perspective that would be for the betterment rather than disaster of one’s own people and land.

For Bougainville, the mighty PNG was and is gobbling its race, culture, values, dignity and so on and in the near future Bougainville will be no-more but a mere historical agenda. This is purposefully done under the blessings from the norms of human rights and the PNG constitution.

Since the dawn of colonialism the world forgot that Bougainville and its people were human beings; they were human beings with senses that generated changes within their psyche. They felt pain and joy; they saw disaster and success on their land. Thus all these brought about good and bad development or change to the individual Bougainvillean and his world. As human beings Bougainvilleans had to maintain the status quo to perish or instigate change to survive the carnage on their land and life.

To all that, the colonial administration and later PNG, just laugh in ignorance and arrogance till hell opened wide in late 1988 for the world to see that somewhere in the heart of the Pacific a people were being denied their rights for survival.   

Warring Indoctrination of Bougainville People

Leonard Fong Roka

There are a number of crimes against human rights that Bougainville is subjected to under the ruling state of Papua New Guinea. Many Bougainvilleans that really search deeper into the problems of their island home are now broadly categorizing all crimes under (1) exploitation, (2) indoctrination and (3) genocide. In the many exchanges of discourses we daily hold, I often talk about writing to educate Bougainvilleans to see the fateful trends our island is heading towards.

Me and my first book, The Pomong U'tau of Dreams

To me literature is one means to educate the Bougainville people to search into the sources of their problems; or it’s the means to foster irredentism. Thus I see, as a writer and author, my task for my Solomon Island people is to stand up on the massive indoctrination we are faced with. That is, I feel like dedicating my life writing and publishing a few more books exploring this hell PNG has and is subjecting us to.

In the Anthony J. Reagan and Helga M. Griffin edited 2005 book, Bougainville before the conflict, Douglas Oliver is cited as having referred to Bougainvilleans and Western Solomon [Choiseul] islanders as ‘the black spot in an island world of brown skins’. Then the late Bougainville leader, Joseph Kabui is noted by Ulukalala Lavaka Ata’s 1998 article, The Bougainville Crisis and PNG-Australia Relations saying ‘It is a feeling deep down in our hearts that Bougainville is totally different than PNG, geographically, culturally. It’s been separate place from time immemorial. Ever since God created the Universe, Bougainville has been separate, has been different.’

All these Bougainville physical features are obvious; Bougainvilleans are black as God created them, whilst PNG people are reddish or brown as Douglas Oliver noted. But PNG’s 7 million people do not acknowledge these distinctive qualities of Bougainville’s 300 thousand people but rather indoctrinates them to pave the way for exploitation and eventual genocide.

The fate for Bougainvilleans starts off from the PNG constitution. The very first line in the PNG Constitution Preamble reads: ‘We, the People of Papua New Guinea— united in one nation…’ is the foundation of indoctrination of Bougainville people. Under the real definition of the term ‘nation’ PNG is not a nation but a country of 800-plus nations. Building a country on lies brings disaster and PNG experiences that in the form of corruption, crime and so on.

PNG further enforces this lies on Bougainvilleans through the education system. PNG has an education system that does not respect Bougainvilleans but rather, it is a curriculum that turns Bougainvilleans away from their origins or roots.

Every textbooks used in the primary schools, high schools and secondary schools of PNG absolutely lacks Bougainvillean content; not a chapter in social science textbooks dedicated to Bougainville history, politics, culture and geography. Every textbook has no Bougainville symbols and characters simply because PNG lacks the deep understanding of Bougainville society and culture.

Thus I believe my role is now to take the first step against this savage done on my Solomon Island people of Bougainville. 

My first book, The Pomong U’tau of Dreams: A Bougainvillean Collection of Poetry (2013) is uniquely Bougainvillean! The moment a Bougainvillean reader sees the cover, he or she knows that the book belongs to him or her; deep inside, the content is all about his people and land. This will be backed by the soon coming collection of short stories, Moments in Bougainville (2013) followed by my two completed manuscripts, Brokenville, an autobiography of my Bougainville crisis experiences from 1988 to 1997 and Tales from Bougainville, an anthology of short stories and poems (both scheduled for print in 2014).

Bougainville is drowning in the tempestuous sea of PNG indoctrination and I am the only one seeing our identity and dignity sinking, so as long as I live, I will try to rescue my island with a few more books and die a proud Bougainvillean.

Who are you to mine my Panguna minerals for?

Leonard Fong Roka

Bougainville suffered from exploitation by external powers since 1899 when the Germans and the British bargained over it as if it was their commodity. This intensified under Australian rule with the discovery of the mineralization in Panguna and the granting of the prospecting authority to Conzinc RioTinto of Australia (CRA) in 1963 that eventually with all the legal backing of the colonial government (later from 1975 the Papua New Guinea government) brutally intimidated the Solomon Island people of Bougainville.

Bougainville’s Panguna mineralization is clear as shown by the online specialized paper, Porter Geoconsultancy article entitled Panguna Copper & gold (n.d.) (link http://www.portergeo.com.au/database/mineinfo.asp?mineid=mn441 ) is: The main lithologies of the mineralised complex in the mine area include:

Panguna Andesite - the main wall-rock host is a member of the Kieta Volcanics and occurs as a shallow SE dipping hornblende microdiorite lava, agglomerate, lapilli tuff and local pyroclastic bands from 1220 to about 450 m asl. It becomes less agglomeratic with depth, but more welded, fractured and propylitic alteration. It has been contact metamorphosed to a hornblende hornfels for up to 500 m outward from the contact, grading to epidote-chlorite-albite-K feldspar-calcite-pyrite to the limit of exposure, some 1200 m from the contact.
Kawerong Quartz Diorite - the bulk of the intrusion is un-mineralised and occurs to the north-west of the Panguna mine. Within the mine apophysis, there are a number of phases and variants, characterised by gradational, crosscutting and overprinting relationships. These phases are represented by a series of lithologies which include:
Biotite Diorite which comprises the main mass of the apophysis and largely surrounds the Biotite Granodiorite and "Feldspar Porphyry" and is a more potassic altered variety of the main Kawerong Quartz Diorite. It carries much of the mineralisation, and is increasingly brecciated with depth.
Leucocratic Quartz Diorite is a later intrusive phase which occurs on the southern margin of the main intrusive mass. It contains more intense quartz veining and is more siliceous than the Biotite Diorite.
Biotite Granodiorite and "Feldspar Porphyry", which occupy the low grade central core of the orebody. Both post-date the Leucocratic Quartz Diorite and differ only in degree of alteration and texture;
Breccias occur as intrusive, collapse and tectonic breccias and cut most of the main intrusive phases described above. Intrusive breccias were formed by the emplacement of the biotite diorite into the Panguna Andesite and contain angular andesite fragments set in a matrix of biotite, chalcopyrite, bornite and local free gold. Consequently, they are associated with higher ore grades. Metal grades within the breccia bodies decline with depth, and they are cut by dykes of Biuro Granodiorite;
Pebble dykes, including one that can be traced laterally in the open pit for 1900 x 50 m, exhibit fragment milling and consistent fragment and matrix compositions over considerable distances;
Biuro Granodiorite, (3.4 Ma) which is only weakly mineralised and occurs as dykes and as a mass on the western side of the deposit, where it dilutes the ore; Feldspar porphyries occur as post-mineral intrusions;
Nautango Andesite (1.6Ma) is a the barren post ore intrusive.

The fracture pattern exhibits a concentric form, modified by the regional NE structural grain, which is exploited by intrusive features such as pebble dykes.

To Bougainvilleans since time immemorial, whether they have any idea or not of this sub terrestrial wealth their land has, this is their minerals for it is their land; nothing should come in between. Rio Tinto’s and PNG’s infiltration ended up in the loss of 20 thousand Bougainvilleans since 1988.

 But, this is the wealth available for those with the financial power and technology to exploit on Bougainville after a 10 year break since 1989. As seen obvious there is a team attracted to, or is a force with this Panguna mine re-opening issue.

One reason why Bougainvilleans fought the BCL and the PNG government was the influx of non-Bougainvilleans who grabbed our land, raped our mothers, and looted our gardens and so on. Thus looking at the mineralization in Panguna, does Bougainville has the resources to localize mining? As Bougainville created a vagrancy law? As Bougainville established all needed tertiary institutions regarding and mining and so on within the island?

These developments must be on Bougainville first then we talk mining in Panguna for the sole purpose of protecting Bougainvilleans based on the reasons why they lost their loved ones.

The team of people with conflicting interests on this controversial mine obviously are: Rio Tinto with it player on the ground is BCL, PNG with a legal trickery on Bougainville and Bougainville with the pro-mining leaders that the late Francis Ona hated and revolted.

Where is Rio Tinto coming from? In an Island Business article, Bougainville Copper Limited set to re-open Panguna (April 2013) ( link http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/papua-new-guinea/821/bougainville-copper-limited-set-to-re-open-panguna/ ) BCL chairman, Peter Taylor said: ‘…the mine has the potential to process 60 million tonnes of ore per annum, a similar rate that it achieved prior to the mine being suspended.’

This rate was for the pre-crisis mining operations. It was done for PNG development and not Bougainville. To re-start Bougainville economy with such a rate is suicide for Bougainville and not Rio Tinto.

Bougainville, as it prepares for referendum needs not this size of mining. Panguna must be down-sized relations to Bougainville’s sustainable economic growth.

The obvious fact is that Rio Tinto which is having nightmares in its other mining projects is interested in making profit in the Chinese economic boom and not wanting to mine in developing Bougainville.

With that PNG is now fooling Bougainvilleans as it did in 1976 with the useless provincial government system. With the mining powers it is clear that PNG has the all the power to decide Bougainville policies.

In a Lexology article, Reopening of Panguna copper-gold mine in PNG: risks and benefits (July 2013) by Rockwell Olivier and Dan Ward (link http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d6f8fdb-d43f-4b47-a0a0-9ca85323b3f3 ) they wrote: ‘Although the PNG Constitution was amended to allow the Autonomous Region of Bougainville to make laws in relation to mining, such laws aren't necessarily guaranteed. Section 292(3)(a) of the PNG Constitution provides that even if ABG passes the proposed mining laws, the National Government would still need to agree with the legislation, otherwise the law won't take effect until a dispute resolution process reaches a final determination.’

To this, Bougainville has no power to control or design mining development on Bougainville; PNG still hanging on.

Back in Bougainville, the problem is that we have greedy leaders alone in Kieta. There are people running after their personal interest and brain-washing the local uneducated people. Their issue is money into their Panguna pockets from Rio Tinto, ABG and PNG. Decisions made are so far not representative of the people thus getting the whole Bougainville Island frustrated for not being progressive.

So, who are you to mine my Panguna minerals for? The answer is, Rio Tinto will be mining my Panguna for the Chinese markets under the blessing of PNG and not the Bougainville government, people and their future betterment and nationhood.