Tuie:: Bougainville Tourism Newsletter: The Panguna Mine Experience - Part I

By Jaive Smare
Source: www.myamazingparadise.com

At the end of November 2010, I was waiting for a PMV at Arawa to head up to Panguna.

Steps Up to Old Residence at Panguna. More picture at bottom of the post.

I was a bit worried about getting past the much talked about No Go Zone at the Morgan Junction a few kilometers outside of Arawa town.
The No Go Zone is an erected barricade on the road to Panguna set by the late Francis Ona’s Mekamui Organization.
The Morgan Junction is the intersection where the traveler is given three options.
Option 1. They could travel south and end up in Arawa and go onto Buin.
Option 2. They could travel east and end up in Kokopau and catch the boat to Buka, or;
Option 3. They could travel north, 29kms up a winding road and end up in Panguna, location of the Bougainville Copper Mine pit and former mining town.
Zhon Bosco, a former combatant who is now a tourism operator of Bougainville Experience Tours told me that it would be ok.He said it with a typical Bougainville assuring smile so I had bit more confidence.
And off we went. It’s K10 per person to catch the PMV at the Arawa Bus Stop to Panguna and it takes about 10 – 15 minutes to get there from Arawa.
We passed through the No Go Zone roadblock without much commotion, the guards and the PMV driver and passengers shouting out to each greeting and having a laugh.
I learnt that they often charge a fee to visitors to go past the No Go Zone; the fee itself varies between K100 and K200.00.
As we began the climb up, the passengers began to point out places where there were buildings before including large landowner houses that were burnt down by PNG police and armed forces just before the crisis escalated as well as BCL property that was destroyed by the BRA and others fighters.
It was an interesting experience. The road was in superb condition as we drove up to the highest point and rested. I couldn’t get a clear shot of the view up there because of dense cloud cover so if you go you may have a better day then me.
The place is heavily forested with a lot of wild jungle orchids growing there and more.
After the brief pit stop, we began to descent down to the Panguna Mining Town. All along the road, once could see wrecks and rusting hulks of disused BCL vehicles and machinery as well as pillars and posts etc.
Up on the hills, alluvial mining was taking place by the locals who had dug a series of holes that network through some of the hills.
We drove all the way down to what I believe was one of the Mine’s mills, where a large metal salvage operation was underway.
I could see some white expatriates admiring one of the giant BCL Ball Mills and the passengers told me they were negotiating to buy it from the locals.
After dropping of a passenger, we drove back up and took a right hand turn and onto Panguna, the Mining Town….
continued part 2 ( i have split this post to accommodate the many images of Panguna).