copper gold and silver mining company that operated the panguna open cut mine on the island of bougainville in papua new guinea png from 1971 to 1989 . mining operations were officially halted on 15 may 1989 when employees were attacked during an uprising . 1 until then it was one of the world s largest open pit mines . the panguna mine dominated the economy of the island during the 1970s and 1980s . it also was highly significant to the overall png economy in the 1970s and the 1980s the company s tax and dividend payments added up to approx . 44 % of png s national budget . contents 1 shareholder structure 2 history 3 us lawsuit 4 references 5 external links shareholder structure edit major shareholders are rio tinto 53.6 % papua new guinea 19.1 % and the european shareholders of bougainville copper esbc with approx . 4 % . the remaining freefloat of 23 % is held by private investors . the company has no access to the mine since the conflict began in 1989 . the mine is controlled today by the me ekamui tribal government of unity mgu led by the brother in law of the late revolutionary leader francis ona and president phillip miriori . 2 history edit the mine at panguna was opened in 1972 and majority owned by rio tinto . 3 the mine was vitally important to the economy of papua new guinea but the people of bougainville were seeing little benefit from it . the png national government received a 20 % share of profit from the mine of which the bougainvilleans received 0.5 % 1.25 % share of the total profit . 4 the first bougainville independence movement began to arise in the late 1960s as people began to air their grievances against the australian colonial government over the handling of the panguna mine . australian external territories minister charles barnes was accused of telling the bougainvillean people they would get nothing . the issue of compensation went to the high court of australia where it was found that the compensation was inadequate under ordinary federal australian law but that as an external territory papua new guinea was not guaranteed the same standards that applied to mainland australia . 5 in 2010 employing interviews with bcl executives and internal company documents university of ulster academic dr kristian lasslet published findings linking the company to war crimes . 6 this research suggests that bcl placed significant pressure on the png government to assert its authority on bougainville following acts of industrial sabotage and then aided the security forces providing them with trucks fuel accommodation communications equipment storage space messing facilities and office resources even after their human rights abuses became apparent . although these allegations have been denied by bcl s current chairman dr lasslett insists on their veracity citing numerous recorded interviews with company executives and a large cache of bcl records all of which evidence his findings . 7 in his first statement on radio australia pacific beat on 8 june 2010 the newly elected president of bougainville john momis declared that the panguna mine has to be reopened to assure economic growth of bougainville in the future . 8 as a result of substantial lobbying by mgu the abg stripped bcl of its mining rights in 2014 9 us lawsuit edit citizens of bougainville have filed a class action lawsuit in the united states against british australian company rio tinto arising from the environmental damage caused by the mine and war crimes occurring during the civil war years . in august 2006 the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit rejected rio tinto s effort to dismiss the claim . see sarei v rio tinto 456 f. 3d 1069 9th cir . 2006 . citation needed references edit about the company . retrieved 25 august 2015 . http www.sbs.com.au news dateline story blood and treasure bougainville copper limited . rio tinto . retrieved 11 june 2016 . ewins rory the bougainville conflict accessed 24 june 2009 1 benggong v bougainville copper pty ltd 1971 hca 31 ; 1971 124 clr 47 2 3 lasslett k 2010 saving hearts and mines 4 regan a & lasslett k 2013 not credible ausaid mining adviser defends rio tinto against war crime allegations http www.radioaustralia.net.au pacbeat stories 201006 s2921794.htm http www.abc.net.au news 2014 08 11 bougainville new mine 5663620 external links edit bougainville copper limited european shareholders of bougainville copper esbc bougainville copper limited all annual reports since 1967 v t e mining companies of australia adelaide brighton cement allegiance mining alumina aquarius platinum atlas iron bhp billiton bougainville copper compass resources copper mines of tasmania energy resources of australia fortescue metals group grd hancock prospecting iluka resources international ferro metals laguna resources macarthur coal macmahon holdings magellan metals marathon resources marston minara resources mineralogy minerals and metals group mount lyell mining and railway company new hope coal newcrest mining orocobre oz minerals paladin energy pilbara iron qcoal rio tinto aluminium rio tinto group south32 tiwest joint venture coordinates 6 18 55 s 155 29 47 e 6.31528 s 155.49639 e 6.31528 ; 155.49639 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bougainville copper & oldid 724758496 categories mining companies of australiacompanies of papua new guineacompanies listed on the australian securities exchangehistory of papua new guineamining in papua new guineaautonomous region of bougainvillerio tinto subsidiarieshidden categories use dmy dates from june 2011use australian english from june 2011all wikipedia articles written in australian englishall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from june 2016coordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais edit links this page was last modified on 11 june 2016 at 08 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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