Context of activity

New-Caledonia

New-Caledonia is a French overseas community made up of a group of islands and archipelagos, located in the Coral Sea, in the South Pacific Ocean.
Its inhabitants, the Caledonians, number 271,000, spread over 3 provinces.

New-Caledonia has a special status resulting from the Nouméa agreement (May 5, 1998), approved during the electoral consultation of November 8, 1998. Organic law n ° 99-209 of March 19, 1999 sets the framework for the institutional evolution of New Caledonia for twenty years.
In New-Caledonia, the French State remains competent for, in particular, the control of immigration and foreigners, currency, the Treasury, foreign exchange, national defense, justice, the public service of the State, the maintenance of order and higher education and research.

 

271.000
Inhabitants
3
Provinces

Nickel industry

Nickel production has played a major part in the economic landscape of New-Caledonia for over 140 years. The Caledonian subsoil is rich in metallic bearing minerals, specially nickel, extracted in open pit mines and transformed into various nickel products. These products, like ferronickel, are exported to customers located mainly in Asia, North America and Europe for use in the manufacturing of stainless steel.
There are several companies in the nickel sector in New-Caledonia. Société Le Nickel (SLN) is currently the largest ferronickel operation.

8%
world reserves

Photo credit : Aerial Prod

Biodiversity

Thanks to the extraordinary diversity of its terrestrial fauna and flora, its richness in number of species present in its coral reefs, New-Caledonia is recognized today to be one of the hot spots of biodiversity in the worldwide. This small territory is home to 3,700 plant species (80% of which are endemic), 71 reptile species and 114 bird species of which 86% are endemic. New-Caledonia alone represents nearly 75% of the surface of the reefs and lagoons of the French territories. The UNESCO World Heritage designation of six marine areas of the Caledonian lagoon emphasizes the international recognition of the richness of its biodiversity. This exceptional heritage requires a very special duty of management and preservation. Thus, very many public or associative structures, with environmental purpose, contribute to the knowledge and the information of the communities and to the preservation of this natural heritage. NCE adopting the same approach.

3700 plant species / 80% endemic

71 species of reptiles / 86% endemic

114 bird species / 86% endemic

Photo Credit : Aerial Prod

Other economic activities

The economy of New-Caledonia consists of, in addition to the nickel activity, a dynamic activity linked to agriculture, the processing industries in particular agrifoods, building and public works, services and tourism.

Agriculture

Agriculture

Processing industries

Processing industries

Building

Building

Public works

Public works

Services

Services

Tourism

Tourism

Photo credit : Aerial Prod

Nouméa

The economic heart of New-Caledonia, its capital city Nouméa and its agglomeration (made up of the 3 neighboring municipalities of Dumbéa, Mont-Dore and Païta) are located in the Southern province. Two out of three inhabitants live in this agglomeration which concentrates most of the economic and industrial activities, apart from the Voh-Koné-Pouembout (VKP) pole in the Northern province which is active in the extraction of nickel ore and in the tourism industry .
The head office of NCE as well as the Doniambo power station are located in Nouméa.

Photo credit : Aerial Prod