The controversial Panguna mine, which lay derelict for more than 30 years following the eruption of a civil war on the remote islands of Bougainville – now an autonomous region of about 300,000 people in eastern Papua New Guinea (PNG) – is set to be revived to support the region’s plans for nationhood.
The Autonomous Bougainville Government has secured an agreement with local landowners to move ahead with plans to reopen the vast open-cut copper mine in the central mountains of Bougainville Island that was at the centre of a destructive decade-long conflict between Bougainville and PNG that ended in 2001.
