Nickel mining in New Caledonia
Ferronickel , nickel matte | |
Production | 200,000 tonnes |
---|---|
Financial year | 2020 |
History | |
Opened | 1864 |
Nickel mining in New Caledonia is a major sector of the New Caledonian economy. The island contains about 7.1 million tonnes of nickel reserves, about 10% of the world's total.[1][2] With an annual production of 200,000 tonnes in 2020, New Caledonia was the world's fourth largest producer after Indonesia (760,000), Philippines (320,000), and Russia (280,000), followed by Australia (170,000) and Canada (150,000).[3]
Nickel production in New Caledonia accounts for 6% of the island's GDP and 24% of private employment. With the exclusion of tourism, nickel ore and derived metallurgical products represent about 90% of the total value of exports.[4][5][6] The industry has played a dominant role in the politics of New Caledonia for over a century.[7]
History
Nickel was found in New Caledonia in 1864 by engineer Jules Garnier. It is distributed in lateritic layers that cover about one third of the area of the main island of New Caledonia. The nickel concentration is inhomogeneous and also varies with the depth. Whereas its usual concentration is 2–5 percent, it can reach 10–15 percent in scattered deposits of green garnierite. Those areas were developed first, using primitive manual extraction methods and were gradually depleted, resulting in the present average concentration of about 2.6 percent. This nickel is located at a depth of about 30 metres (98 ft). Shallower layers of 10–20 metres (33–66 ft) also contain nickel, but at half the concentration. They remain unexploited and constitute most of the nickel reserves of New Caledonia.[6]
Wide-scale mining started in 1875 in Houaïlou and Canala communes. Early mining was done by hand and then gradually became mechanised. By beginning of the 20th century two large mines at Bourai and Thio were established.[8] In the initial years, after nickel was discovered mining was done in about 330 mines. However, in 1981 there were only 30 functional mines as against 130 in the early 1970s. [9] Because of the remote location of the islands, about half of the ore was smelted locally, despite the underdeveloped industrial infrastructure of New Caledonia. Another half was exported, mainly to Japan. The first nickel smelter was built in 1879 with two other added in 1910 and 1913. The smelted product contained about 70–80% nickel and was sent for refining to France. Because of low nickel content in the ore, local smelting resulted in vast amount of displaced rocks near the smelters that changed the local landscape.[6]
In the 1930s, the Europeans (also called Caldoche) and companies like the Société le Nickel dominated the economies of the colony. The native Melanesians were confined to reservations which made up only 10 per cent of New Caledonia's land area.[10] The main source of mine labor came from Asian migrants recruited by France. The arrival of these migrants from India, Japan, China, Java, and Vietnam both increased and changed the demographics of New Caledonia's population. By the 1920s, Asians outnumbered the French.[citation needed]
The production of ore was nearly constant between 1875 and 1948, but then increased about 70 times reaching a peak of about 8 million tonnes in 1971, at which time New Caledonia was the second largest nickel producer in the world. In the second half of the 1960s, the nickel industry experienced rapidly increasing demand linked to the Vietnam War.
Mines
Strip mining is the most common technique adopted for nickel mining and statistics show that stripping of 500 million tonnes of overburden had to be removed to extract nickel ore, which amounted to clearing an area of 20 hectares (49 acres) per million tonne (five million tonnes of ore per year generate 25 million tonnes of tailings).[8]
The local nickel industry is dominated by the French company
Despite a decline in the nickel mining, New Caledonia remains one of world's largest producers of laterite, a source of ferronickel (an alloy of iron and nickel) which constitutes about 20% of country's production. Another 80% is nickel extracted from saprolite.[12] In 2008, New Caledonian ferro-nickel was mostly exported to the European Union (41.8%), Japan (18.2%), Taiwan (18.2%), China (8.0%), India, South Africa, South Korea (2.4%) and the United States. On the contrary, all smelted nickel is sent to France.[12]
The major mines are Goro, Thio, Koniambo, Kouaoua, Nepoui – Kopeto and Etoile du Nord.[5] Recently the new Tiebaghi mine has been opened which will be responsible for some 30% of SLN's annual production, accounting to 20,000 tonnes per year.[5]
Goro Nickel Plant
Environmental impact due to nickel mining
Even though the nickel mining operation is crucial to the economy of the region, its environmental adverse impacts on the environment and ecology have invited protests from the Environmental lobbies. The environmental groups, with its social and political undertones are seeking remedial measures to redress mines' landscape impacts and the ecological aspects. Some of the impacts brought out are the following.[8][15][16]
During the boom period of nickel extraction in the state, there were serious visible effects on the environment, consequent to stripping of hill slopes. Erosion of hill slopes are reported to have continued, even after closure of some open cut mines in the Theo Mining Centre on the east coast of the main island. It is reported that the Thio centre provides, especially its Plateau mine (Theo Mining centre once produced 20 million tonnes of nickel ore), the most striking example of the environmental damage caused by mining activity in New Caledonia.
Mines now in operation are better managed under opencast mining as compared to the past. However, according to environmental impact studies carried out, two new large nickel mining and processing plants have been identified as detrimental to the adjoining coral reefs and also to plant and animal species. Planned mitigation measures may still eliminate some adapted species.[17]
Pollution abatement measures
The government of New Caledonia has evolved strategies, technologies and policies to maintain the balance between environmental conservation measures and mining industry. The new legislation has ensured enforcement of installing
Gallery
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A typical landscape in New Caledonia. Red-orange color of the rocks comes from the soil rich in metal oxides
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Mining region of Kouaoua, New Caledonia
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View of a creek that depicts richness of the ground in iron oxides and nickel.
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Soft nickel limonite below a hard layer of laterite on parent ultramafic rock. Yate, New Caledonia
References
- ^ "The market". Export markets - New Caledonia. Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). Retrieved 6 January 2022.
- ^ Sarrailh, Jean Michel; Ayrault, Nathalie (January 2001). "Rehabilitation of nickel mining sites in New Caledonia". Unasylva. 52. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: 16–20. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-4113-4398-6. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ "Un quart des emplois privés liés au nickel en Nouvelle-Calédonie". Le Figaro (in French). Paris. 22 April 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
- ^ a b c d e "Mining in New Caledonia". Mbendi Information Services. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ a b c d "The history and economics of mining in New Caledonia". United Nations University. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ^ a b c d e f "Mining activities in New Caledonia". ESCAP Virtual Conference. Archived from the original on 2002-03-16. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
- ^ a b c "Environmental Case Studies" (PDF). South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP). pp. 2–4.
- ISBN 978-1-349-10830-5.
- ISBN 978-1-349-10830-5.
- ^ a b Susan Wacaster, The Mineral Industry of New Caledonia, USGS, 2008
- ^ "Vale departs New Caldonia as a New Century dawns". 26 May 2020.
- ^ "Goro Nickel Project, New Caledonia". Mining Technology.com. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
- ^ a b "New Caledonia:Introduction by the Association pour la Sauvegarde de la Nature Neo-Caledonienne" (PDF). Ramsar Wetlands. pp. 3–4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-25.
- ^ a b "South Pacific Region" (PDF). Reunion. p. 13.
- ^ "New Caledonia: Human Impacts". Biodiversity Hotspots: Conservation International. Archived from the original on July 4, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-04.