30 January 2019

The autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville is about to change its mining law to accommodate an investor from Perth.

The company Caballus Mining, which has no public profile in the industry, has proposed it set up a company to operate mines in Bougainville.

Caballus, working with the Autonomous Bougainville Government, is pushing to change the Mining Act, which the government has hailed since its passage three years ago as the saviour of Bougainville's landowners, giving them control of the minerals on their land.

The company, which is headed by high profile Perth businessman Jeffrey McGlinn, would, together with the government and landowners, set up a company called Bougainville Advance Mining, or BAM.

It said it wanted to shortcut a number of what it calls complicated requirements in the act to fast track vital infrastructure development in Bougainville and boost employment ahead of the referendum on independence from PNG, due in June this year.

After this BAM would commence mining operations at various locations around Bougainville, maintaining, it says, stringent environmental controls.

The government is expected to pass the amendments to the Mining Act this week.