Ann: RECENT INTERVIEW/ARTICLE BY THE ABC, page-20

Andesite, as Vontrader keeps pointing out, you & your cohorts have cloth ears & refuse to accept reality.

There was a civil war, yes.
The mine operated by BCL, was causing massive environmental damage, and BCL was doing nothing to correct or repair it.
While the mine was operating half a billion dollars in profit was being made every single year. All of it was leaving Bougainville.

Now, if it was your land & it was being heavily environmentally damaged & the damagers were taking half a billion dollars per annum out of the country wouldn't you be upset.
Please !!! Give me a break.

I haven't read the book but that is the root of the problem. No matter how you couch it the locals got their noses out of joint 'cos they were being ripped off, big time.

Now that was 30 years ago.
The country & people have moved on & recognise that mining does not have to damage their land & that the profits can benefit the locals & a fair portion can remain in the country.
So they have decided to revisit mining.
BCL had many, many opportunities to restore their local reputation as I pointed out. In their arrogance & colonial attitude, they ignored them. They have got what they deserved.

Now, yes sovereign risk is an issue. And the other, peripheral, landowners will also be an issue. And both, as I'm sure you realise (but refuse to admit), will be addressed in the Central Me'ekamui developement plan.

As previously stated, the SMLOLA under Phillip Miriori, have 50% of this joint venture. As much as freefall wants to keep rubbishing Miriori, I'm sure a large precentage of this holding will spread the ownership amongst the people of Bougainville as has been Miriori's intention from the start. The ABG will get part of it, the other landowners will get part of it, the SMLOLA will retain some, etc., by negotiation amongst the locals.

Miriori knows, as everyone else knows, the mine will not work if this doesn't happen.
The solution has to be equitable as the cause of the problem was that it was not equitable.
It doesn't need white historians & company executives to tell them what happened, why & how to stop it recurring.
The locals were there. They lived through it! They saw it first hand.