source: Radio New Zealand

The president of Bougainville says he hopes to have a complete mining law for the autonomous Papua New Guinea province passed by the end of the year.

A new "transitional" law was passed last week to replace PNG mining law, which formalised the province's control of its own resources as laid out in the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

John Momis says the new law ensures that landowners will own the resources on their land, but more work still needs to be done to prepare the full legislation.

" Well we are still working on the provisions for environmental safety standards and hopefully by the end of the year of January next year we'll have the complete mining law passed."

Bougainville's President, John Momis.