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Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act 1967

Chapter 196.

Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act 1967.
Certified on: / /20 .

INDEPENDENT STATE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

Chapter 196.

Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act 1967.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS.

INDEPENDENT STATE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

AN ACT

entitled

Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act 1967,

Being an Act to provide for the approval and implementation of an agreement made on 6 June 1967 between the Administration of the former Territory of Papua and New Guinea and Bougainville Copper Pty. Limited, concerning the development of certain mineral deposits in Bougainville, as varied by a further agreement made on 21 November 1974 between the Government of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville Copper Limited, and for other purposes.

1. INTERPRETATION.

In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears–

“the Agreement” means the agreement a copy of which is set out in Schedule 1, as varied by the agreement set out in Schedule 2, and where that agreement is further varied under Section 3 includes that agreement as so varied;

“the commencement date” means 30 November 1967 (being the date of commencement of the pre-Independence Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act 1967);

“the Company” means Bougainville Copper Limited, a company incorporated in Papua New Guinea and, subject to the provisions of the Agreement, includes its successors and assigns.

2. APPROVAL OF AGREEMENT.

The Agreement is approved, and takes effect according to its tenor.

3. VARIATION OF AGREEMENT.

(1) The Agreement may be varied by a further agreement or agreements between the Prime Minister on behalf of the State, and the Company.

(2) A further agreement under Subsection (1) is of no force or effect until notice of its approval is published in the National Gazette by the Head of State, acting on advice.

(3) A notice under Subsection (2) shall be laid before the Parliament within 15 sitting days after the date of publication of the notice, together with a copy of the further agreement to which it relates.

(4) The Parliament may, by resolution passed at the meeting at which a notice under Subsection (2) is laid before it, or at the meeting next following that meeting, disallow the notice.

(5) If the Parliament passes a resolution disallowing a notice under Subsection (2), the approval ceases to have effect, but without prejudice to the validity of anything done or suffered in the meantime.

(6) Subject to Subsection (7), any purported variation to the Agreement, otherwise than in accordance with this section, is void.

(7) This section does not affect the operation of Clause 5, 19 or 20 of the Agreement.

4. EFFECT ON AND OF OTHER LAWS.

(1) Except as provided in Subsection (2), the Agreement has the force of law as if contained in this Act, and applies notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other law.

(2) The provisions of Subsection (1) do not apply to or in relation to Clause 11(b), Clause 13(e) and Clause 14(a) of the Agreement.

(3) No pre-Independence law made after the commencement date, and no other law of Papua New Guinea, affects this Act or the Agreement–

(a) unless the contrary intention appears, expressly or by implication, in that law; or

(b) except as provided by the Agreement.

(4) Except where the contrary intention appears, either expressly or by implication, in the Agreement, and subject to the preceding provisions of this section and to Section 5, all laws that are not inconsistent with this Act or the Agreement apply to and in relation to all acts, matters or things done or suffered under the Agreement.

5. ANCILLARY POWERS OF THE PRIME MINISTER.

(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the Prime Minister has power, on behalf of the State, to make all grants, issues, renewals and extensions required by or under the Agreement to be made by the State, and is not bound in that regard by any provisions of any such law requiring or permitting any authority, consent, approval, report, recommendation, appeal, procedure or formality, or by any similar provision.

(2) The provisions of Clause 2(c) of the Agreement do not apply to or in relation to an amendment made to Subsection (1), or that was made to Section 7(1) of the pre-Independence Mining (Bougainville Copper Agreement) Act 1967 after the commencement date, but no such amendment relieves the State of any of its obligations or liabilities under the Agreement.

6. OFFENCES AS TO COMPANY ROADS.

(1) A person who fails to obey a direction given by the Company or by a person authorized by the Company (whether by a traffic sign or traffic line or otherwise), under the powers conferred by Clause 14 of the Agreement is guilty of an offence.

Penalty: A fine not exceeding K100.00 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

(2) For the purposes of Subsection (1), “traffic line” and “traffic sign” have the same meaning and effect as in the Motor Traffic Regulation 1950.

(3) It is a defence to a prosecution under this section for the defendant to prove that he honestly and reasonably believed that the direction given was not given by the Company or a person authorized by the Company.

7. COMPANY PORT, ETC.

(1) In this section–

“the Company port” has the same meaning as in Clause 11 of the Agreement;

“the Company’s Port Manager” has the same meaning as in Clause 11 of the Agreement.

(2) Where the Company or the Company’s Port Manager gives, in accordance with the powers conferred by Clause 11 of the Agreement, directions for regulating–

(a) the time and manner in which any vessel shall enter into, depart from or lie in the Company port, or the position, mooring, unmooring, placing or removing of any vessel within the Company port; or

(b) the manner in which or the time at which any vessel shall take on or discharge its cargo or any part of its cargo or shall take on or deliver ballast, water or fuel,

the master of a vessel in the Company port who fails to regulate the vessel according to the directions of the Company or of the Company’s Port Manager, as the case may be, is guilty of an offence.

Penalty: A fine not exceeding K400.00.

(3) Where the Company or the Company’s Port Manager has, in accordance with the powers conferred by Clause 11 of the Agreement, caused a vessel in the Company port to be moored, unmoored, placed or removed in default of compliance by the master of the vessel with a lawful direction given by the Company or the Company’s Port Manager, the master of the vessel is liable to pay all expenses incurred by the Company in the mooring, unmooring, placing or removal of the vessel, and the Company may recover the amount as a debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(4) Neither the Company’s Port Manager nor any employee or agent of the Company is personally liable for any act or default of himself or of the Company done or committed in good faith in the course of the exercise of the powers of the Company or of the Company’s Port Manager in relation to the management and control of the Company port.

(5) The Company port or any other port serving any of the facilities referred to in Clause 11(a) of the Agreement shall be deemed to be a proclaimed port under the Shipping Act 1951 (Adopted).

8. RIGHTS OF SHAREHOLDERS, ETC.

In the event of a breach of the Agreement by the State, being a breach of a provision under which a right or benefit is granted specifically to a member of the Company or a beneficial owner of a share in the Company, any member of the Company and any beneficial owner of a share in the Company who suffers any loss by reason of the breach has the same rights and remedies as he would have had if he were a party to the Agreement.

9. WAIVER OF RIGHTS UNDER AGREEMENT.

Notwithstanding anything in this Act or in the Agreement, a party to the Agreement or any other person may waive any of his rights under the Agreement in the circumstances of any particular case, without prejudice to the exercise of those rights in any other case.

10. PURPOSES OF AGREEMENT A PUBLIC PURPOSE.

The purposes of the Agreement are a public purpose within the meaning of any law.

11. APPROPRIATION.

All amounts from time to time due and payable by the State to the Company under the Agreement shall be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund which, to the necessary extent, is appropriated accordingly.

SCHEDULE 1 – THE 1967 AGREEMENT.

Sec. 1.

AGREEMENT

Office of Legislative Counsel, PNG