A future run on clean energy is impossible without lots of copper, a key component in solar panels and electric cars. That has some looking to a small island in the South Pacific called Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea. It holds one of the largest copper deposits on earth. This island’s people once waged war to keep mining corporations off their sacred land. But now they’re open to selling it — if that’ll help them achieve a long-held dream. Patrick Winn brings us the second of a three-part series on Bougainville, potentially the world’s next country.
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