From IAN JOHNSON
Your article ‘Island devastated by mine, say rebels’ (This Week, 30
May) overlooked the substantial scientific contribution made by Bougainville
Copper Limited (BCL) to Papua New Guinea environmental research.
The Panguna copper mine is a very large open-cut, but the mine area
and tailing leases occupy only 1.4 per cent of the island. Substantial disturbance
within this area was always seen as an unavoidable cost of having the mine
there. Compensation paid to local landowners affected by this disturbance
totalled 24 million kina ( £13.3 million) over the life of the mine
(1969-89). Of the total 1.7 billion kina cash generated by the mine, 67
per cent went to the national and provincial governments and landowners.
During the period of the Panguna mine’s operation, the company carried
out research and monitoring programmes into a wide range of environmental
aspects to assess the impact, identify changes and prepare for rehabilitation.
BCL had some 30 staff in its environmental division, and a budget of many
millions of dollars. It employed hydrologists who published a large number
of world ranking papers. Environmental research in marine biology and agronomy/rehabilitation
was of a similar high standard.
When the Panguna mine was established, the technology to transport tailings
down steep mountain slopes was not available, and tailings dams were not
practicable due to high seismicity. After many years of research and engineering,
BCL was close to completing a 70 million kina tailings pipeline to the
coast when the mine was closed by rebel activity in 1989. This would have
resulted in no more tailings being deposited in the Jaba River and rehabilitation
of the valley could have been advanced.
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In 1988, the Papua New Guinea national government employed a New Zealand
consulting firm to examine BCL’s environmental performance. The resulting
report made it clear that the allegations you attribute to the rebels’ spokesman,
Mike Forster, are without substance.
Ian Johnson CRA Minerals (PNG) Port Moresby Papua New Guinea
