An Australian mining company, Frontier Resources, says it will sue the Papua New Guinea Government for nearly three billion US dollars after it was denied an exploration licence for a site near the Kokoda Track.
The Perth-based company has confirmed that Papua New Guinea's Mining Minister Puka Temu had refused to renew its Mt Kodu licence.
Planned work at the site would have threatened parts of the Kokoda Track, where 600 Australian soldiers died fighting the Japanese during the Second World War.
In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, Frontier says it will seek to recover expenditure related to the site and the potential future profit.
Frontier had promised local landowners that a future gold and copper project along part of the track would have earned them up to 90 million US dollars over 10 years.
Landowners angry about the government's decision to stop the project continue to threaten blockades of the track, which is visited by thousands of Australian trekkers each year.
In April, the track was protected under an agreement signed by the Australian and PNG governments.
