Bougainville President accused of favoritism in $160B mine deal

Ishmael Toroama, president of the autonomous region of Bougainville, is facing allegations of impropriety regarding the selection of Lloyds Metals and Energy Ltd to reopen the Panguna mine. The mine, which contains an estimated $160 billion in copper and gold, has been closed for decades.

Reports indicate that Toroama signed a memorandum of understanding with Lloyds in November 2025, bypassing official selection processes and ignoring warnings from the government-owned Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL). BCL had cautioned that Lloyds lacked the technical and financial capacity compared to other bidders.

Investigations revealed that Lloyds' managing director, Balasubramanian Prabhakaran, arranged and paid for a life-saving kidney transplant for Toroama’s wife in India. While Toroama maintains this personal arrangement had ‘nothing to do’ with the mining deal, the timing of the medical assistance coincided with the selection process.

This development follows a shift in regulatory control, where the Autonomous Bougainville Government revoked exploration licenses from BCL and transferred a 25-year mining license to the state-owned Bougainville Minerals Ltd, positioning Lloyds as a designated partner.