Local government hopes reopening of mine – once world’s most profitable – will support bid for independence from Papua New Guinea

The mine at the centre of the decade-long civil war between rebels in Bougainville and Papua New Guinea security forces is set to reopen 30 years after it was forced to close, following an agreement between local landowners.

Panguna was once one of the world’s largest and most profitable copper and goldmines and still contains an estimated 5.3m tons of copper and 19.3m ounces of gold, which would make the reserves worth about $60bn at today’s prices.

Six people missing after boat sank just 150 metres from Nissan Island, with lone survivor swimming 15 kilometres to neighbouring island

Authorities in Bougainville are still searching for the autonomous region’s health minister after he and his family went missing in rough seas at the weekend.

Charry Napto, his wife and son were among seven people on board a banana boat which was travelling to Nissan Island from Buka, the capital of Bougainville, on Saturday.

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot as he conducted exploration activities for a new gold mine in the region

A Thai geologist working at a new gold mine in Bougainville has been shot dead in the second killing at a mining project in the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea in recent months.

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot by a high-powered weapon on Monday in the Kokoda constituency of south Bougainville.

A look back at the archipelago’s history, from German colony to civil war, and from reconciliation to independence referendum

Archipelago’s flags replace Papua New Guinean ones on government buildings ahead of voting in referendum

Bougainville will head to the polls tomorrow to decide whether the region will seek independence from Papua New Guinea and become the world’s newest country, in a referendum that has been 20 years in the making.

The small archipelago of islands about 700km east of mainland Papua New Guinea, will hold a referendum that its people have been looking forward to since the ceasefire that ended a brutal civil war in 1998 and the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement in 2001.

Bougainvilleans will vote in an independence referendum this weekend, the result of a unique Melanesian process of reconciliation

Thirty years ago Bougainville lost 20,000 people in a brutal civil war that lasted almost a decade.

This week Bougainvilleans will go to the polls to vote on independence from Papua New Guinea, but in a very different mood – one of joy and celebration. Underlying this historic occasion is a resolve by all sides to honour the fallen, but never again return to conflict.

It is a vote that has been 20 years in the making. On Saturday, residents of the remote archipelago in the Solomon Sea will start to decide their future

On Saturday, the people of Bougainville – a small archipelago of islands flung 700km off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the Solomon Sea – will begin voting in a referendum that will determine if their beloved homeland will become the world’s newest nation.

It is a vote that has been nearly 20 years in the making. In 2001, as part of a peace agreement to end a devastating decade-long civil war, the government of Papua New Guinea promised the population of Bougainville, then about 200,000 people, that they would one day be able to cast a vote to decide their future.