Bougainville communities’ human rights complaint against Rio Tinto
The Human Rights Law Centre is working alongside Indigenous communities in Bougainville to seek justice for the environmental and human rights devastation caused by Rio Tinto’s former Panguna gold and copper mine. We are supporting community leaders who want action so that their people can live safely and prosper on their land.
PROJECT | Corporate Accountability
The environmental devastation left by Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine on Bougainville, now an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea, remains one of the most serious examples of corporate impunity in our region.
Panguna was previously one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines. From 1972-1989, close to a billion tonnes of mine waste was released directly into the Jaba and Kawerong river valley, destroying communities’ land, waterways, livelihoods and cultural practices.
In 1989, an uprising by local people against this environmental destruction and economic inequality forced the abandonment of the mine and triggered a brutal decade-long civil war which cost the lives of up to 20,000 people. No clean-up has ever taken place.
The Human Rights Law Centre has been working in close partnership with indigenous communities in Bougainville since 2019 to compel Rio Tinto to address this disastrous legacy so people can live safely on their own land.
Together with 170 indigenous Bougainville residents, we filed a complaint against Rio Tinto through the Australian OECD National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct (AusNCP). The complaint alleges serious impacts to communities’ safety, health and livelihoods are being caused by almost a billion tonnes of mine waste that has been left by the mine.
In response to the complaint, and sustained advocacy, in 2021, Rio Tinto agreed to fund an independent impact assessment.
The two-year major independent investigation, the Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment was released in late 2024 and confirmed what communities have said for decades: they are living with an environmental and human rights disaster. Major impacts include:
- imminent, life-threatening risks posed by the collapsing mine pit, levees and infrastructure;
- ongoing contamination of the Jaba-Kawerong river and migration of waste into new areas;
- mine-related flooding, making river-crossings to access basic services life-threatening and affecting peoples’ access to drinking water, food gardens and sacred sites; and
- toxic chemicals stored in some locations and found in the soil in some areas.
Rio Tinto has accepted the report’s findings and established a Roundtable forum with the Bougainville Government and its former subsidiary, BCL, to discuss ways forward, including the development of a potential remedy mechanism. While leaders from the affected communities have welcomed these significant steps, they have expressed concern about their exclusion from the talks and have criticised the slow pace of progress to address life-threatening risks posed by the mine, some of which were identified as early as August 2022. They are also seeking a clear long-term commitment to co-designed solutions to all impacts caused by the mine.
Our team continues to support communities calling on Rio Tinto to fund the solutions desperately needed. This includes Rio Tinto contributing to a substantial, independently managed fund to help address the harms caused by the mine, assisting with long term rehabilitation efforts, as well as participating in reconciliation as per Bougainvillean custom.
Media coverage
- AFR, 6 December 2024: Rio’s abandoned copper mine ‘life-threatening’ to Bougainville locals
- ABC, 13 October 2024: Landmark report uncovers human rights abuses at Rio Tinto gold mine in Bougainville, 35 years after closure
- Tony Boyd, AFR, 1 September 2024: Rio Tinto: Class action skewers its Bougainville redemption
- Reuters, 23 July 2024: Rio Tinto Class Action over Bougainville mine damage set October hearing
- Al Jazeera, 27 June 2024: Political deadlock frustrates Bougainville’s aspirations of independence
- Watch the ABC News story from June 2023 on the deadly impacts of the Panguna mine here
- Myriam Robin, AFR, 23 April 2023: Rio Tinto facing suit from Panguna landowners
- New York Times, December 2022: ‘Important Step’ Toward Addressing Toxic Legacy of Huge Mine
ACNC: 31 117 719 267 | Connect with the Human Rights Law Centre
Acknowledgement of Country
The Human Rights Law Centre acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands across Australia, including the lands of the Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Gadigal, Ngunnawal, Cammeraygal, Darug, Wadawurrung, Turrbal and Jagera people where we work from.
We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This land always was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
WARNING: This site contains images or names of people who have passed away.