Page 12 - IB April 2021

Mining Mining

VALE FINALLY SELLS NICKEL

ASSETS IN NEW CALEDONIA

By Nic Maclellan In the two decades since the project was conceived, Vale
has engaged in tense struggles with local customary leaders,
After months of political dispute, the Brazilian corporation operating through the Rhéébù Nùù committee (“eye of the
Vale has finally sold its Goro nickel smelter and other assets in land” in the local Drubea language). As Vale collaborated with
New Caledonia’s Southern Province. successive provincial administrations in the south, Rhéébù
The new owners Prony Resources and Trafigura have ac- Nùù campaigned for environmental protection, jobs and op-
cepted a corporate structure that gives majority control to lo- portunities for local subcontractors.
cal New Caledonian interests. The deal is guaranteed by loans Since it began production, the Goro plant’s hydrometallurgi-
and tax breaks from the French government and is backed by cal technology has generated major environmental problems.
the commercial and technical support of Tesla, the Califor- Vale’s failure to manage these impacts was a long-standing
nian automotive and renewable energy corporation. grievance from nearby Kanak villagers. From the beginning
Throughout 2020, there was widespread disagreement over of operations, a series of acid spills from the smelter leaked
which consortium could bid for the Goro nickel-cobalt smelter effluent into local creeks and rivers, damaging the freshwater
and the other assets of Vale Nouvelle-Calédonie (VNC). The ecosystem that provides resources and livelihoods to local
company is the local subsidiary of the Brazilian corporation communities. A major leak of acidic effluent from Goro in May
Vale, one of the largest mining companies in the world, with 2014 sparked violent clashes with trade unions, neighbouring
interests in logistics, transport, energy and steel making. Kanak tribes and subcontractors, amid calls for the smelter to
After years of work on the project, VNC began nickel smelting be closed.
in New Caledonia in 2010, late and over-budget, using high- Faced with fluctuating nickel prices, technical challenges
pressure acid-leach technology. and local political opposition, Vale Canada announced in
The Goro smelter and Vale’s nickel ore reserves are December 2019 that it would sell its local subsidiary VNC. In
located in the Kanak customary region of Djubea-Kapumë, April 2020, the Northern Province’s development arm SO-
which makes up the southernmost portion of Grande Terre. FINOR, in partnership with Korea Zinc, announced a prelimi-

12 Islands Business, April 2021