The SIM is an association formed by miners and metallurgists of New Caledonia to represent and defend the interests of the profession with a focus on sustainable human, economic, and social development.

Why education about New Caledonian
nickel is now essential?

Better understanding the mining industry of New Caledonia

Nickel is the territory's primary economic pillar. It plays a structuring role in employment, land development, public finances, and local growth. Yet, this sector remains sometimes misunderstood and at the center of complex, often polarized debates. Faced with these observations, SIM member companies wished to carry a collective, transparent, and educational initiative aimed at better explaining the reality of the mining and metallurgical industry, its economic, social, and environmental challenges, as well as its prospects for evolution.

A public interest initiative

The C'Nickel campaign targets all stakeholders across the territory: institutions, the business world, social partners, the education sector, customary authorities, and citizens. It pursues several goals of common interest:
▪ Fostering a shared understanding of the nickel sector
▪ Providing factual, accessible, and structured information
▪ Contributing to a more peaceful and informed public debate
▪ Highlighting professions, skills, and career paths
▪ Creating useful resources for training, education, and territorial dialogue
Through educational content, including video capsules, C'Nickel addresses nickel comprehensively: its usefulness, how it works, its constraints, its impacts, and its role in the economic and industrial future of New Caledonia.‍

A tool serving dialogue and knowledge sharing

This initiative does not replace debates or exchanges.
It aims to enrich them by offering a common knowledge base, understandable by all, on which everyone can rely. SIM members thus wish to make C'Nickel available to institutional, economic, social, educational, and customary stakeholders as a tool for understanding, sharing, and dialogue, serving the territory's general interest. This initiative is part of a long-term approach, collectively carried by sector companies, to support the transformation of the nickel industry and contribute to a shared vision of its future.

A tool serving dialogue and knowledge sharing

This initiative does not replace debates or exchanges.
It aims to enrich them by offering a common knowledge base, understandable by all, on which everyone can rely. SIM members thus wish to make C'Nickel available to institutional, economic, social, educational, and customary stakeholders as a tool for understanding, sharing, and dialogue, serving the territory's general interest. This initiative is part of a long-term approach, collectively carried by sector companies, to support the transformation of the nickel industry and contribute to a shared vision of its future.

SIM Members

The company's development is above all a story, a family, and a human adventure.

Founded by Jules MAI in 1984, the family business has grown over the past 40 years to stand among the major players, alongside other small miners in New Caledonia who export nickel. Several factors explain MKM's position in the Caledonian mining sector.
The first is related to the land: the knowledge and expertise gained from field experience, built since the late 1950s by the MAI family.
The second factor, no less essential, concerns the consideration of the social environment near the sites. Integrating and supporting people in the economic development around mining activities in the South has always been a priority for MKM. The partnerships forged with customary chiefs, neighboring populations, institutions, and municipalities are lasting and essential to sustaining direct and indirect socio-economic benefits and working toward social balance.

MKM, which holds its own mining titles in the South at N'GO, has now moved from the status of mining subcontractor to that of a Small Miner operating directly on its own behalf.
The company has been committed to integrating the indigenous population as a stakeholder in the project, and thus MKM contributed to the creation of several companies, including WAKONDE for ore carrier loading operations (crane operators, chain workers and foremen), representing about fifty intermittent jobs.

The economic growth generated by the company has enabled the creation of several haulage companies and micro-enterprises (reforestation, transport, meal preparation, etc.).

This is how MKM continues its development in the present, to offer future generations an economic, cultural, and social heritage rooted in local realities and carrying the MAI family's values.
An iconic industrial facility contributing to the rebalancing between the north and south of New Caledonia.

Koniambo Nickel is the result of the 1998 Bercy Agreements between the French State, New Caledonia, and the private sector.

KNS is 51% owned by the Societe Miniere du Sud Pacifique and 49% by Glencore.

It is an integrated pyrometallurgical industrial site, meaning it encompasses the entire production chain including an open-pit mine, a 12 km conveyor, an ore-to-ferronickel processing plant, a power plant, and a deep-water port.

Currently in a suspension phase during the process of Glencore's share divestiture, Koniambo Nickel remains committed to its ambition of being a factor of rebalancing through its direct and induced activities.

In line with its values, the company places Health and Safety, respect and diversity, as well as integrity and rigor at the heart of its actions.
The Nickel Mining Company (NMC) was born from an innovative and unique partnership in New Caledonia between SMSP (Societe Miniere du Sud-Pacifique) and South Korean steel giant POSCO, through the signing of a memorandum of understanding on May 22, 2006.

NMC's main mission is to operate and supply approximately 3.5 million tonnes of wet ore (at ~2% nickel) annually from its four mining centers (Ouaco, Poya, Nakety, and Kouaoua) to feed the ferronickel plant operated by SNNC, also a product of the partnership, located in Gwangyang, South Korea.

Both 51% owned by SMSP and 49% by POSCO, SNNC and NMC operate on an integrated model, from mine to processing, eliminating intermediaries.

The mines operated by NMC are part of SMSP's heritage, the result of development that began in 1969 with continuous modernization (prospecting, acquisition of mining titles, equipment renewal) to ensure sustainable production and employment stability.

As of May 1, 2025, NMC employs approximately 650 people in New Caledonia, directly contributing to economic development, local employment, and the sustainable development of mineral resources.
Prony Resources is a major player in the global energy transition, sustainably developing nickel and cobalt resources according to high industrial and environmental standards.

This consortium, innovative in its shared governance (51% public, 49% private), directly employs 1,350 people and generates 1,300 indirect jobs, while committing to a rigorous CSR approach.

Working safely and rigorously is a fundamental value of the company, which operates on a fully integrated industrial site.

Prony Resources produces NHC, an essential material for lithium-ion/nickel batteries in electric vehicles, meeting growing global demand.

By leveraging its industrial robustness and expertise, the company contributes to the global ecological transition, local economic development, and the international influence of the region.
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> 1,300 employees - 1 in 2 employees >10 years of seniority - >200 external hires/year
Transforming ore into nickel metal since 1880
Since 1880, SLN has been transforming ore into nickel metal, drawing on unique industrial expertise in extraction and metallurgy.
Over generations, the company has evolved its practices to make them ever more responsible and efficient, in line with environmental requirements and the planet's needs. Deeply rooted in New Caledonia, SLN is part of the history of seven generations of Caledonians and enjoys international recognition in the nickel world.
A territory-wide company at the heart of the region
A leading Caledonian company in ferronickel production, notably with SLN® 25, SLN operates across the entire territory. More than one-third owned by New Caledonia's three Provinces, alongside the Eramet Group, it closely involves the territory in its governance. With 1,800 employees, 98% of whom are Caledonian, it generates approximately 63 billion XPF in annual economic benefits for New Caledonia.
Doniambo, a strategic site facing energy challenges
The pyrometallurgical plant at Doniambo, equipped with three of the world's most powerful electric furnaces, is the industrial heart of SLN. In a context of ecological transition, reducing dependence on fuel oil, integrating renewable energy, and controlling electricity costs are major priorities to ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of operations.
The Societe des Mines de la Tontouta (SMT), a mining subsidiary of the Ballande group, has perpetuated nearly 150 years of responsible mineral resource exploitation in New Caledonia.

Operating across four active sites, mainly on the East Coast, SMT generates nearly 400 direct jobs and relies on a diversity of locally anchored professions.

Committed to responsible mining, SMT focuses on exploiting low-grade ores to extend deposit lifespans while maximizing resource recovery.

It innovates by lowering commercial grades, optimizing granulometric sorting, and reducing cutoff thresholds.

Its work is accompanied by the first mine rehabilitation programs conducted in New Caledonia, with the goal of restoring sustainably rehabilitated sites.

Managing resources optimally and leaving a restored environment: this is SMT's mission.
The SMSP group, Societe Miniere du Sud Pacifique, is the fruit of a history deeply rooted in that of New Caledonia.

Founded by Henri Lafleur, SMSP was acquired in 1990 by SOFINOR, a mixed-economy company owned by the Northern Province.

The group now serves as a tool for rebalancing and economic development for the Northern Province and the Caledonian territory.

SMSP is a holding company, a public limited company in the mining and metallurgical sector, which advocates a strategic vision of vertical integration. This translates into a desire to be a shareholder in the processing plants of New Caledonian natural resources, which is the case with Koniambo Nickel and SNNC based in South Korea.

Two plants in which SMSP holds a 51% stake. SMSP also holds 51% of the Nickel Mining Company, NMC (51%), a mining company that supplies the South Korean plant, and Cotransmine (100%), a barging company.

SMGM

Gemini

SNNC