"Rio Tinto urged to accelerate action on remediation of Panguna mine disaster, one year on from landmark investigation", 5 December 2025

One year on from the release of an independent investigation into Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine in Bougainville, communities living with the ongoing environmental devastation are calling on the company to urgently move towards funding solutions, particularly in areas identified as posing life-threatening risks.

Conducted by Tetra Tech Coffey, the landmark Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment found serious risks to local people from toxic chemical hazards, collapsing infrastructure and levees, and mine-related flooding. The report made over 30 recommendations for action to address these hazards and other significant impacts on communities caused by over a billion tonnes of tailings waste left by the mine.

...Rio Tinto has accepted [the report's] findings and committed to developing a remedy mechanism consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Over the past year, the company has been working with communities, the Bougainville Government and its former subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Limited, to discuss ways forward, and has supported further investigations into some of the most critical risks posed by the mine.

Despite these steps, leaders from affected communities have expressed concerns at the slow pace of progress towards addressing time-critical risks on the ground, some of which were first identified as early as August 2022. Communities are urging Rio Tinto to now move decisively towards addressing the mine’s impacts and establishing an independent fund for long-term remediation works and clean-up.

Quote from Theonila Roka Matbob, traditional landowner and lead complainant:

“A year on from the release of the report, our communities are still living with collapsing levees, polluted rivers, and dangerous chemicals. The mine’s impacts affect every aspect of our daily lives — from where we grow our food and collect our water to our ability to safely cross rivers to access schools and healthcare.”

“[...] What we need now is for solutions to be implemented quickly, in partnership with community leaders on the ground.

...
Panguna was previously one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines. During its operation from 1972 to 1989, over a billion tonnes of mine waste was released directly into the Jaba and Kawerong rivers. In 1989, an uprising by local people against this environmental destruction and inequities in the distribution of the mine’s profits forced the mine to stop operating and triggered a brutal decade-long civil war.

No clean-up has ever been undertaken of the site. Rio Tinto remained the majority owner of the mine until 2016, when it divested and passed its shares to the PNG and Bougainville governments, walking away from the disastrous environmental legacy and its impacts on local people.

Rio Tinto agreed to fund the Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment in 2021 in response to a human rights complaint brought by local communities, represented by the Human Rights Law Centre...