A photo taken on May 27, 2015 shows Brazilian Vale's nickel processing plant of Goro in southern New Caledonia. Photo: AFP PHOTO / FRED PAYET
The Caledonian Union has called for a broad stocktake after the Brazilian miner Vale announced it would sell its nickel asset in New Caledonia.
The president of New Caledonia's largest pro-independence party Daniel Goa said the situation is completely unbalanced and an independent study has to be commissioned to measure the impact of Vale's plans on employment and society.
In a media statement, Mr Goa called on the government to examine the contractual obligations linked to tax deals with the nickel companies.
As part of its restructure, Vale decided to close its nickel refinery at Goro with an as yet undetermined number of job losses and wants to sell two million tonnes of nickel ore abroad to counter its losses.
Photo: RNZ / Vale
However, Mr Goa said he was opposed to any such ore sale, pointing to arrangements which he says had passed the resource to the investors for free.
He said the ore could be made available to the other New Caledonian nickel producers, suggesting also that the ore could be processed at a South Korean plant in which New Caledonia has a stake.
His party also wants to revisit the granting of ore export rights to the SLN nickel company.
However last month, the highest French administrative court approved SLN's plan to sell some of its ore as part of its restructure to stave off a possible collapse.
