Bougainville Copper to seek formal acknowledgment of Bougainville mining rights, Post PNG pays first dividend, and low-cost ‘squatter’ housing project in Fiji. Your weekly digest of the latest business news.

The new Bougainville Mining Act has created uncertainty ‘regarding Bougainville Copper’s rights to mining and exploration licences’, says Chairman Peter Taylor. He told the company’s AGM, ‘the company is taking some comfort from correspondence and continued dialogue with the ABG and President Momis where he acknowledges that the company is a holder of a Special Mining Lease … [and] the company will seek formal granting of the exploration licence and exclusive access’ to the area in October.

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Post PNG, a state-owned enterprise, has paid its first dividend of K300,000 in 30 years. The payment was made to the Independent Public Business Corporation.

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Shops, schools and offices closed this week, after a 7.4 strength earthquake hit East New Britain province. It was third quake in a week. There were no reports of damage or injuries, according to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

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InterOil executive Isikeli Taureka says the company isn’t ruling out a takeover ‘if the price is right’. He was commenting on the US$70 billion bid by Shell for the UK’s BG Group, which would mean ‘a new set of dynamics for all the LNG players’.

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The Asian Development Bank says Papua New Guinea’s state-owned enterprises are a major source of inefficiency in the economy. Their return on equity, says economist Paul Holden, has been only 3.4% between 2007/2012, despite the SOE sector growing 21% annually.

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This week marks the first anniversary of the start of LNG production. ExxonMobil PNG Managing Director Andrew Barry says to date, it has produced more than 6 million tonnes of LNG and delivered 87 cargoes. Meanwhile, the people of Porebada, Boera, Papa and Lealea villages say they are still waiting for the state to pay them their royalties from the project.

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Crater Gold is processing its first gold concentrate extracted from its Crater Mountain site in Eastern Highlands Province.

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Uron Salum

PNG coconut producers are exploiting just five per cent of their potential compared to Asian countries, says the PNG-born executive director of the Asia-Pacific Coconut Community, Uron Salum. He says the average family in India has 40 trees and can make K120 per day, whereas PNG families can own up to 100 trees.

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Two Australian fashion designers are helping alter the bilum bag to suit international customer demands. The project is funded by the Australian Government, in partnership with Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation, to help rural women get the best price possible for their product.

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The PNG Forest Authority is about to carry out an inventory of the country’s forests. Studies show 80% of is covered in forests and 60% remains undisturbed. Forests Minister Douglas Tomuriesa says there is increasing pressure to log the country’s forests.

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Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd chief executive officer Joe Wemin reports 8,225 unregistered vehicles on PNG roads.

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The IPA’s Ivan Pomaleu

The Investment Promotion Authority will be carrying out a company database survey and spot inspection of operating certificates in Madang between 19-29 May, says Managing Director Ivan Pomaleu.

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The World Tuna Purse Seine Organisation has announced a 35% reduction in fishing effort from 15 May until the end of the year. The measure covers the Western and Central Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and applies to all commercial refrigerated industrial tuna purse seiners.

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Low-cost housing for Fiji’s squatters. Credit: ABC

Australian Peter Drysdale, has built 160 houses, now home to 780 of Fiji’s poorest people. The cost of each house is A$12,000. Each home has two sections separated by a breezeway, with one containing two bedrooms, and the other a kitchen, shower and toilet and can withstand powerful storms. Officially, Fiji has 110,000 squatters.

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The inaugural Chair in Economics at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1967, Anthony Clunies-Ross, has died in Scotland, aged 83.

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And finally, a landowner company in Solomon Islands has bought the troubled Gold Ridge mine for A$100 (K211) from Australian gold miner St Barbara.