Page 16 - IB FEB 2019

Business

Shipping nickel to China cial officer karl Therby said that SMSP was working both in New
In an interview with Islands Business, SOFINOR’s chief finan-

Dang got the real deal Caledonia and overseas to use the diverse range of nickel ores
available from locally controlled mines.
“We’ve developed a strategy to add the maximum value to the
resource by adding value right through the supply chain,” said
Therby. “As is the case in many countries, mining alone cannot
add the necessary value that can come from the minerals. So
the crucial element is the transformation of the minerals within
the country.
By Nic Maclellan “For high grade ore, we’re doing this transformation onshore
through our subsidiary kNS, while lower grade ore is transformed
AT a time Western security analysts are fretting over Chinese into metal offshore in our joint-venture plants in korea with SNNC
strategic influence in the Pacific, some local businesses are and NMC and our new partner in China.”
looking at opportunities for trade and investment with China. In The driving force behind SMSP and its subsidiaries is New
the French Pacific dependency of New Caledonia, the Northern Caledonian entrepreneur Andre Dang Van Nha. Dang’s parents
Province administration led by Paul Neaoutyine is seeking ex- arrived in New Caledonia from French-controlled Indochina in
panded access for nickel sales to the Chinese market, as part of 1935. They worked as indentured labourers in the mines on
a broader development strategy for the kanak-majority region. the koniambo Massif owned by Société le Nickel (SLN), which
The nickel strategy is managed through the provincial de- has dominated New Caledonia’s nickel industry for more than
velopment arm Société de Financement et d’Investissement de 100 years. His father died in the mines when Dang was just 17
la Province Nord (SOFINOR) and the mining company Société months old. Today, SMSP controls mining operations across the
minière du sud Pacifique (SMSP). koniambo Massif.
Over the last three decades, since the 1988 Matignon-Oudinot During New Caledonia’s armed conflict of the 1980s, Andre
Accords, SMSP has grown into a significant producer of nickel Dang was driven into exile in Australia, with the colonial Right
metal and a major global exporter of nickel ore. After the construc- perceiving him as too close to the FLNkS independence move-
tion of the koniambo nickel smelter in New Caledonia’s Northern ment. However he returned to New Caledonia in 1990, to assist
Province, SMSP is expanding offshore through joint ventures. the Northern Province manage its mining operations after the
However the company has maintained 51 per cent controlling tragic death of SMSP’s Raphael Pidjot in a helicopter crash.
interest in its projects in New Caledonia, korea and even China. Beginning in 1990 as a mining transport company with 120
This is an unprecedented achievement in the Pacific, where many employees, SMSP began exporting nickel ore in 2007. Over time,
governments and businesses take a minority stake in resource SMSP has worked to break the monopoly over nickel smelting
projects run by transnational corporations. held by the French corporation eRAMeT and its local subsidiary
SLN.
TRADE MARK CAUTIONARY NOTICE IN MICRONESIA SMSP’s strategy has been to retain high value saprolite ore
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, a Korean company, of 12, from the koniambo Massif for domestic use. This ore, with 2.3
Heolleung-ro, Seocho-Gu, Seoul, 137-938, Republic of Korea, per cent nickel content, has been supplied to a new smelter in the
does hereby provide notice that it claims proprietorship of the Northern Province: the uS$5.3 billion plant at Vavouto operated
trade mark by koniambo Nickel SAS (kNS), a joint venture between SMSP
and the transnational conglomerate Glencore.
Andre Dang told Islands Business that he persuaded the
IONIQ Anglo-Swiss financial conglomerate to allow SMSP 51 per cent
controlling interest in kNS. Dang said that despite debt burdens
in relation to: to get the project underway, this is carried by Glencore: “I bring
Automobiles; parts and accessories for automobiles; electric the resource, and Glencore brings the money. Glencore takes all
cars; hybrid cars; dump cars; buses; passenger cars; passenger responsibility for the financial risk. I don’t have any debt – they’re
cars for more than seven passengers; trucks; lorries; tires for the ones with debt!”
To generate funding for its share of koniambo finances, SMSP
vehicle wheels; tubes for vehicle wheels; braking devices developed a strategy to export lower grade nickel ore to korea
for vehicles; automobile engines; power transmissions and and China, once again using joint ventures controlled 51 per
gearings for land vehicles; transmissions for land vehicles; cent by SMSP.
bearings for land vehicles; couplings for land vehicles; axle SMSP has two joint ventures with the korean corporation
journals; suspension shock absorbers for vehicles Posco: the Nickel Mining Company (NMC) and the nickel process-
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY cautions that any use of the trade ing company Société du Nickel de Nouvelle-Calédonie et Corée
mark or any confusingly similar trade mark in relation to any of (SNNC). In 2009, SNNC began smelting nickel at the company’s
these goods or similar goods, would be seen as infringement plant at Gwangyang, South korea, with production of 261,469
of their rights and that they will take such action deemed tonnes of nickel metal between 2009 and 2017. In the same
necessary to protect those rights. period, SMSP’s subsidiary NMC has exported nearly 20,000,000
tonnes of ore to the Gwangyang plant, which uses lower grade
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY can be contacted care of their saprolite ore with an average of 1.98 per cent nickel content.
address for service: The next challenge is to export even lower grade ore, with av-
AJ Park, Level 22, Aon Centre, 1 Willis Street, Wellington erage nickel content of 1.65 per cent, to a joint-venture smelter
6011, New Zealand in China. On 18 October 2017, SMSP signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOu) with yangzhou yichuan Nickel Industry

16 Islands Business, February 2019