NMC, owned 51% by SMSP and 49% by POSCO, represents 650 employees and approximately 2,000 induced jobs (subcontractors and surrounding businesses) spread across 3 operating sites on the West Coast and the East Coast, and administrative headquarters located in Ducos, Noumea. The company must extract approximately 3.2 million tonnes of ore which are to be exported to the New Caledonian plant SNNC, located in South Korea and also owned 51% by SMSP and 49% by POSCO. The latter, since its commissioning in 2008 and its expansion to two lines in 2013, transforms the New Caledonian resource into ferronickel. It allows SMSP to receive 51% of the dividends, which are distributed when its profits allow it.
– Why was a liquidation announced for December 18, 2025?
Since the beginning 2025, NMC has been in discussion with the CIRI, the Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring, the French national authority dedicated to the restructuring of its existing debts and the provision of additional financing to face the production difficulties encountered by NMC during and following the riots. As a reminder, the Nakety site was blocked for 17 months, which led to a 30% drop in production.
As requested by the CIRI at the beginning of the year, NMC contacted its shareholders, SMSP and POSCO, who provided the necessary guarantees to postpone debt maturities to 2025. In spite of this prerequisite demanded by the CIRI, the latter again referred NMC back to its shareholders.
A deadlock for NMC which led to the December situation.
And yet the activities of NMC continue…
– Thanks to a reprieve provided by the shareholders: a sequence of advances on shipments
The initial liquidation date announced was December 18, but NMC and its shareholders managed to negotiate advances on shipments with its client SNNC. A reprieve nonetheless, a solution which is not one and which only postpones the deadline and limits the company in its functioning (investment capacity).
– Why demonstrate in front of the High Commission?
During the gathering of December 3, 2025 at the call of the NMC inter-union, many comments – on social media in particular – questioned the location.
The gathering took place in front of the High Commission because the support that is requested is to access banks in mainland France, since local banks of New Caledonia require exorbitant guarantees that we cannot bear since the riots.
NMC went through all the legal and usual steps to seek support, but the blockages are numerous in a context where nickel is highly politicized.
The group insists on the fact that it was not a political gathering, but indeed an inter-union one, concerning all employees of NMC, its subcontractors, etc. The inter-union called for NMC to benefit from the same levers and the same support as other miners and metallurgists of the territory.
The Nickel Pact is literally “drawn” everywhere on social media and in talks to put the SMSP group and its subsidiaries back in their place in their requests for financial support.
As a reminder, the Nickel Pact is a document of a little less than 10 pages, carried by the French State with New Caledonian authorities (Government, Congress and Provinces) and with miners and metallurgists.
The Nickel Pact was rejected by a majority of the Congress of New Caledonia. The mining and metallurgical operators of the territory do not have voting rights or oversight over the validation of this kind of matter.
FALSE. It is necessary to compare the offshore model with the other model of export of ore from the territory; namely export to smelters in which the New Caledonian company does not hold any share in the capital. When one ton of ore goes to such a smelter, the New Caledonian company receives the turnover, that is to say the amount of the sale of its ore and that stops there.
For the offshore model, NMC receives the turnover and SMSP receives 51% of the dividends distributed by SNNC. Since 2009, nearly 12 billion XPF have been received.
The offshore model therefore does not create more or less jobs in New Caledonia.There are jobs in the plant in South Korea, just as there are in Japan or in China in the plants where the ore of other miners is exported.
It indeed creates wealth in Korea but can receive 51% of it when dividends are distributed, which is not the case of the resource exported to other smelters.
After a phase of « hot standby » from February 2024 to August 2024, the site of Koniambo Nickel was placed in « cold standby » as of September 1, 2024, and resulted in the dismissal of 1,200 employees of the company. A difficult but unavoidable decision due to the absence of a buyer within the 6-month delay allowed by Glencore.
Since the cold standby, the site of Koniambo Nickel adopted an essential maintenance rhythm with approximately 60 employees. Subcontractors are also mandated occasionally for the realization of major environmental works, and in particular on the mine to ensure the maintenance of water management structures or stabilization of the verses.
Since February 2024, the sale process of Glencore’s shares within KNS is managed by the latter which mandated an investment bank. The role of this investment bank is to receive requests from interested groups and to make the necessary data available so that they consider a takeover on the technical and financial level.
At the beginning of the process, in February 2024, 8 groups came forward. Following the riots of 2024 in New Caledonia, only 3 groups remained in the process. Finally, as of January 1, 2025, only the Indian group JSL remained in the process (the two others having been dismissed for various reasons such as insufficient technical data or unreachable proposals). Nevertheless, this group did not provide a binding offer which could convince Glencore.
Following the failure of the process of transfer led by Glencore, the latter contacted SMSP to know if SMSP wished to take over Glencore’s participation in KNS.
The other alternative being liquidation, SMSP obviously agreed to discuss the conditions of this operation.
In parallel, the SMSP group started the search for a partner and has already identified two other groups who expressed interest, and with whom we have started discussions. The most advanced group is currently Lygend, a Chinese group. In November and December 2025, they carried out a complete technical visit, to consider submitting a binding offer in the first half of 2026.
SMSP therefore maintains its efforts with all these groups and the competent authorities.
The site of Koniambo has undeniable strengths with the Koniambo massif. Major infrastructures have been built on the site notably a deep-water port, a power plant, a pyrometallurgical plant and a 12 km long conveyor which connects the mine to the plant.
The economic benefits which are evaluated at several hundreds of billions of XPF concern both employees, subcontractors and all activities linked to the development of life in the VKP area, for the benefit of all populations.
The main weakness of the site remains in an innovative process but which has never been able to reach a ramp-up allowing financial visibility. Compared to other producing countries, there is also – since 2022 – an energy cost well above competing countries.
Nevertheless, we can propose a finished product that respects all environmental and human standards which correspond notably to ISO 26000 (CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility), and which are sought after by the battery and energy transition field.
Our ecological transition is first and foremost an energy transition based on the Northern Province Climate Plan and on the Energy Transition Scheme adopted by the Government of New Caledonia (STENC). We work in coordination and in consultation with the subsidiaries in order to bring them onto the path of a greener nickel. Working groups have been formed within each subsidiary in this sense.
The initiatives relate first to the evaluation of the carbon footprint of our companies, then to the identification of solutions to be implemented on the technical and human level. For example, at NMC, the teams work together in order to optimize the movements of personnel as well as trucks. At the level of Cotransmine, as much as possible they are installing solar panels, or working on alternate techniques (less soliciting equipment to limit unnecessary CO2 emissions).
In a broader way, NMC, Cotransmine or even SMSP have developed proactive policies in terms of revegetation or waste management, or even in the monitoring of their air and water quality indicators. Initiatives which have their source in regulatory obligations, and which are extended and deepened beyond legal requirements every time it is possible.
We also work with Koniambo Nickel in order to reduce our carbon footprint. This goes through many studies, the main one obviously concerning the replacement of coal.
It is a non-renewable resource so yes, exhaustible. It is also for that reason that we must as from today optimize its management and its valorization to maximize returns for the country. For what comes next, it must be anticipated, but it is no longer under the responsibility of industrial actors. It is a political responsibility, a duty of anticipation.
It is a complex question because it evolves over the years and technologies. Twenty years ago we did not process ore below 1.4% nickel. Today, we know that plants can process ore containing only 0.9% nickel. We still have several decades of exploitation ahead of us.
We have never closed the door to partnerships, to synergies. Before Glencore decided to sell its shares, Koniambo Nickel had proposed to SLN to supply it with 450,000 tonnes of ore annually. SLN was studying it. However, the discussions halted with the stoppage of activities decided by Glencore.
If the Koniambo Nickel activity resumes, there will be opportunities to discuss again. Exchanges of ore for example, according to the chemical characteristics required for each plant. An important point to underline, one cannot just take ore elsewhere to supply furnaces, there are characteristics to respect.
Moreover, the SMSP strategy has always been clear, namely the pursuit of optimal valorization of the resource. Our priority is the local transformation of the ore in order to maximize the economic benefits on the territory. However, for ores which cannot be transformed locally, their export towards an offshore plant (mostly owned by New Caledonian public entities), is to be favored because it generates more benefits than a simple export towards foreign countries and smelters.
It is the debt that Koniambo Nickel has towards Glencore. It is a debt towards a shareholder and not towards a bank. The cancellation of this debt is a logical continuation of the process, a consequence of the will of Glencore to separate from its shareholding within Koniambo Nickel. SMSP for its part does not have debt towards Glencore and is not held to reimburse Glencore 51% of this amount.
The CTC made a confusion between individual accounts and consolidated accounts. The consolidated accounts are the sum of the accounts of the different subsidiaries. They therefore take up 51% of the debt of KNS.
One must look at the individual accounts of SMSP which are filed every year. The debt of SMSP is of 23 billion XPF towards its financial partners, debt which is at the origin of an asset value of more than 45 billion XPF (value of the participation shares of our subsidiaries).
This debt of 23 billion XPF is due to the financial partners of SMSP who wished to participate in the financing of SMSP. The latter participates in the financing of the KNS plant.
The media often opposes us for no reason.
We are all actors of nickel in New Caledonia with different strategic visions, mainly on export.
SMSP meets and works regularly with the other companies of the industry, on many common issues.
All the companies of the nickel field exchange, either on the commercial level, or on the technical leve, l and very often on the regulatory level. Moreover, each actor develops synergies according to its interests in terms of training, recruitment, prospection.
However, each industrial actor remains in charge of managing its own business and defends its interests.
With regards to China, we were exploring opportunities : in this case the possibility of a majority stake in a plant in China in partnership with the shareholders of the company YICHUAN. it would have been supplied by the mines of the SMSP group.
While the conclusion of the definitive transaction was imminent and that our subsidiary carrying the participation of SMSP in China was constituted since August 2022, a disagreement appeared on the unexpected request of the partner to remove, from its liability guarantee, certain responsibilities within its remit.
A liability guarantee, when acquiring a stake in a company, means that the company is in good order and has not committed any offences prior to the acquisition, and that if it had, it would bear all the legal and financial consequences.
Like any reasonable and responsible industrial actor, we took the decision to put an end to the draft partnership.
The safeguard plan proposed by SMSP was approved by the commercial court in October 2022. We have already started to honor our plan as agreed.
The benefits of SNNC return to New Caledonia in two ways: the sale of ore which generates the turnover of NMC, which employs, trains and ensures the activity of subcontractors in New Caledonia. And the dividends paid to SMSP which are currently used to reimburse its creditors and mainly the partner banks of the financing of the KNS plant. They therefore participate in the development of the North.
The subject is not so much “local plant” and “plant abroad”. It is more the category of ore which triggers the choice between local or offshore processing. We were aware of two elements : Low-grade ore requires a technology and a particular expertise for its processing to be profitable. We did not have it in 2008 and still do not. This is the reason why SMSP turned to POSCO. As for the KNS plant, it was built to valorize a higher-grade ore.
