Bougainville Copper Share Price Plunges as Panguna Licence Battle Escalates

Bougainville Copper's share price continues to slide, dropping another 8.93% on Tuesday to close at EUR 0.1020. This extends the company's 30-day decline to 29.90%, a sharp sell-off that has accelerated since the autonomous region's government moved to exclude Bougainville Copper from the Panguna copper project.

The latest downturn comes as investors digest the implications of the Bougainville Mining Amendment Law 2026, which would allow the regional authorities to prioritize large-scale mining licences for Panguna to be awarded to state-owned Bougainville Mining Limited (BML). The public debate on the proposed legislation was held on Saturday, and the market has responded with mounting conviction that the company's historical EL01 rights could be effectively subordinated or extinguished altogether.

The relative strength index has fallen to 23.3, indicating deeply oversold conditions and reflecting panic among holders. Market participants point out that without a bankable development plan for Panguna and with the ownership question unresolved, rising copper prices do little to improve the company's risk profile.