The mining company Bougainville Copper Limited has announced it is ready to re-open the Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea's autonomous region of Bougainville.
A series of regional forums are being held across Bougainville to allow all stakeholders to discuss the re-opening of the mine.
According to the Post Courier newspaper, the company has estimated it will cost about 5 million US dollars to start-up the mine and it will take about six years to start production.
The chairman, Peter Taylor, says BCL conducted an Order of Magnitude Study last year and the key findings revealed the project is economically viable, based on key assumptions of mining up to 100 million tonnes of copper per year and processing up to 60 million tonnes of ore per year.
