04.08.2008

The European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper state to the article published by Simon Pentanu in the Post-Courier on Monday August 4th, 2008  as follows:

What is wrong Mr. Pentanu?

Is it wrong, if the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC) …

• ­claim for re-opening the Panguna mine in order to bring back work and prosperity to the people of Bougainville?
• claim to overcome hatred, jealousy and suspicion amongst Bougainvilleans?
• claim for better healthcare on Bougainville supported by BCL or the Bougainville Copper Foundation?
• claim for better roads and other traffic facilities on Bougainville?
• claim for better education on Bougainville supported by BCL?
• claim for environmental caring mining on Bougainville?
• claim for cleaning up the Panguna area?
• claim for disarmament on Bougainville?
• claim that the No-Go-Zone should be transformed into a Welcome-Zone?
• claim for a better management of the company they own?
• claim that the chairman of our company respects corporate governance rules?
• claim to be regularly informed by our directors about the ongoing activities?
• claim that our board of directors imperatively has to reside in PNG?
• insist that all shareholders of BCL are treated equally?
• do not tolerate that the chairman of BCL refuses a four-eye conversation with the president of the ESBC who is biggest group of private investors in BCL?
• claim that the chairman of BCL does not lie to the press. Last week, Peter Taylor stated falsely that neither him nor one of the board of directors had direct contact with the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper?
• will not accept that the chairman of our company behaves rudely to the shareholders who came to assist the Annual General Meeting by telling them that he had only few time to answer questions because of other appointments?
• claim that our company should give more financial support to those Bougainvilleans who support Bougainville Copper?
• are not satisfied that under Peter Taylor's leadership little has been done to project a good image of BCL amongst Bougainvilleans?
• claim that the people of Bougainville and the people of PNG are kept better informed about the intentions of BCL?
• say that Bougainville Copper is the only worldwide known brand of the island of Bougainville?
• since three years claim that Bougainville becomes one of the wealthiest places in the Pacific?
• warn of ambiguous people trying to steal the Bougainvillean’s property?
• claim that all parties concerned in mining in Bougainville  should get together and discuss the outstanding problems in order to find an acceptable solution for all?
• claim that all decisions made for Bougainvilleans must respect local cultural sensitivities?
• ask that Bougainvilleans should stop long, unreasonable and fruitless discussions now?
• claim that the Bougainvilleans start to act now in order to bring a better future to the island?
• consider the Bougainvilleans as normal partners in business and not as beggars?
• do not treat the Bougainvilleans as a group of underdeveloped people but as friends?
• come to PNG to inform themselves on the ground and to talk to Bougainvilleans as well?
• are interested in a better future on Bougainville?

Are we really wrong with our claims?

Fact is that we have not the same ideas like those anti-mining minded groups who intend to kick Bougainville and the Bougainvilleans back into the Stone Age.

Therefore, Mr. Pentanu, please keep yourself informed about the honest intentions of the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper and please do not quote doubtful sources anymore!

I strongly believe the end result you want is the same as the end result that the ESBC want. Only our individual style might vary.

Instead of blaming each other, we should work hand in hand for a better future of Bougainville!

Axel G. Sturm

President of the ESBC

Escaldes-Engordany,  August 4 th , 2008 

24.07.2008

European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper:

Mr. Albanese, please remove BCL chairman immediately!

On Tuesday the President of the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper, Axel G. Sturm, wrote a letter to Rio Tinto Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese and asked him to remove BCL’s chairman Peter R. Taylor immediately. “We deeply regret that we do not have any other option as to do so.,” Mr. Sturm commented in a statement published today in Andorra.

Since a couple of months, there is a strong positive move towards resumption of mining on the remote island of Bougainville.

Bougainville hosts one of the world’s biggest copper-, gold- and silver resources, the Panguna mine. Due to secessionist unrest, BCL had to close the giant mine in 1989. Now, nearly twenty years later, most of the Bougainvilleans learnt that only resumption of mining can generate sufficient income to ease the worrying social and economic problems and to fund necessary infrastructure investments like rebuilding of schools, hospitals, roads, telecommunication etc. . “The Panguna landowners who I met in Port Moresby earlier in May officially invited BCL to come back and resume mining,” Mr. Sturm said, “but obviously Mr. Taylor does not want to listen to them attentively.”

Mr. Sturm and his Vice President Mr. Dächen assisted the 2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Bougainville Copper in Port Moresby. They testify that the BCL management seriously violated existing corporate governance rules. “The voting results of the AGM, shortly thereafter reported to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) are purely faked figures,” Mr. Sturm explains. “There neither has been a serious control on justification to assist the AGM nor has the BCL management secured a regular counting of votes. The ESBC will not tolerate that AGM of Bougainville Copper, which effectively owns one of the potentially biggest copper mines in the world, is managed like a burger shop. Therefore, the ESBC also informed the ASX upon their claim to remove chairman Peter Taylor from heading BCL.” 

Furthermore, the ESBC in their letter complain about the chairman’s arrogance to not answering the landowners’ inquiries and the lack of corporate communications by BCL to its fellow stakeholders. “In May 2007 Mr. Taylor announced a so called “Three-Years-Plan” for reopening the Panguna mine. Since that date, Taylor did not release any further information of that plan to his shareholders. There is no information of a time schedule, no information of the roadmap and the steps to take, simply nothing,” said Mr. Sturm, “We the shareholders simply claim our legal right to be regularly and generally kept informed about the ongoing activities of our company. Although we accept that some sensitive contents might not be suitable to be published to a greater public. We strongly hope that Tom Albanese and other responsible managers of Rio Tinto take notice of these serious corporate governance violations and acknowledge that Bougainville Copper Limited needs a new and serious leadership that respects the legal rights of its shareholders and that is acting in a responsible, dynamic, active, creative, and motivated shareholder communication! The shareholders and especially the Bougainvilleans on the ground expect partners in BCL that they can trust in!”

07.07.2008

European Shareholders welcome Panguna Landowner Announcement: BCL must act now!

“We appreciate very much, that the Panguna Landowners are firmly going forward in the process of paving the way for the re-opening of one of the biggest and richest copper-, gold and silver mines of the world,” said the President of the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC), Mr. Axel G. Sturm, on Monday in Andorra / Europe. “When I met him in May in Port Moresby, I had been deeply impressed by Lawrence Daveona. He is the ideal mediator in this sensitive issue. He has our confidence and our full support as well. Earlier than others Lawrence understood that the only way of bringing enduring peace and prosperity to the island of Bougainville means first of all getting all parties concerned together,” said Mr. Sturm. “I always told my interlocutors in Port Moresby that, if there is a strong will to find a solution on all sides, the new Bougainville Copper Agreement could be ratified within a very short term. Even a date in August when pre-feasibility order of the magnitude study shall be finished by BCL may be realistic.”  Furthermore, Mr. Sturm pointed out that the ESBC now expect BCL chairman Peter Taylor finally to make a concrete public statement on this issue: “To make it quite clear: It is absolutely not acceptable that our company keeps quiet if there is such positive development on facts in Bougainville!”

03.07.2008

European BCL Shareholders Welcome Parliamentary Investigation on Invincible

The European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC) declared on Wednesday in Andorra (Europe) that they are very satisfied that PNG’s Parliamentary Referral Committee on Minerals and Energy  had been charged to bring some light into the so called Invincible Deal and into the Bogenvil Resource Development  Corporation Agreement. “From the beginning we asked ourselves why the late President Joseph Kabui and some of his near friends in the ABG entered into negotiations with a man like Lindsay Semple who is well known as an impostor”, said ESBC-President Axel G. Sturm .

Semple and twenty-five Bougainvilleans, some of them members of the ABG, are supposed to be travelling in Europe for a road show (presentation of new business projects to investors).  “We started in investigation on this famous road show and we did not have any result”, said Mr. Sturm, “so we think that they are simply on holiday. Such a big group of people who are looking for some new business abroad cannot disappear! We are keen to see with which result the group will come back to PNG. If they were really on a road show they will have an A to Z documentary on their work in their luggage. And if they don’t, they are certainly able to explain what they did while travelling around the world.”

European BCL Shareholders Offer their Condolences to the People of Bougainville.

In a statement published on Saturday in Andorra the President of The European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC) expressed his dismay about the sudden death of Bougainville’s President Joseph Kabui. Axel G. Sturm pointed out that Mr. Kabui already has his firm place in the island’s history. “Joseph Kabui and I were born in the same year,” said Mr. Sturm, “nevertheless we had different approaches on politics but we were united in the will to bring peace and prosperity to Bougainville. We have high respect for Mr. Kabui’s work for the island. The ESBC offer their condolences to the people of Bougainville and to Mr. Kabui’s family as well. We will keep his memory in mind.”

20.05.2008

15.05.2008

ESBC: Strong Support for Landowner’s Claim.

The European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper Ltd (ESCB) strongly support the landowner’s claim for re-opening the giant Panguna mine on Bougainville as recently expressed. ESBC President Axel G. Sturm pointed out on Wednesday in Singapore, that there must be a new approach in all activities concerning the resuming of mining in Bougainville. “We are very much satisfied that the landowners made this first and important step towards BCL,” said Mr. Sturm, “that shows us that a lot of people in Bougainville want BCL come back home  to work on the island. Now it is up to the ABG and to the PNG government to make sure that there will be permanent peace and security applied.” Mr. Sturm underlined that without peace and security no investor would give any money to rebuild the island’s damaged infrastructure. Especially the environmental damage due to the sudden departure of mine workers in 1989 caused by the aggression of rebels have to be repaired as quick as possible: “Only a very big mining company like BCL can shoulder a task like this,” said Mr. Sturm, “Also the damage by uncontrolled mining and the use of mercury to separate the gold caused a deep impact to the environment that is supposed to be even higher. Today’s modern mining can provide environmental caring methods of high standard. We absolutely do not want that there will be another young generation in Bougainville that must grow up without education and without a vision of a brilliant future. Only mining can earn the financial funding for progress in Bougainville. The landowners understood and accepted their responsibility for future.”