Bougainville Copper is rejecting claims it lacks backing among landowners for a re-launch of the Panguna mine.
Two companies have been pushing to reopen the Papua New Guinea mine which was shut down when the Bougainville civil war broke out nearly 30 years ago.
The Osikaiang Landowners Association, from the site of the mine, is with a rival mining company and it has written to the Australian Stock Exchange claiming BCL doesn't have the backing among local landowners which it claims.
But BCL secretary Mark Hitchcock said they are confident they have strong support and that it is the leaders of the Osikaiang Association, Philip Miriori and Lawrence Daveona, who are misleading people.
"The two purported leaders of the Osikaiang Landowner Association don't represent the actual land title holders."
"Those landowners are quite frustrated that these two gentlemen purport to hold themselves out as their spokesperson when they don't have the powers to do so, he said."
An abandoned building at Panguna mine site in Bougainville Photo: supplied
