Mining and sustainable development in New Caledonia
Extracting and exporting nickel is a regulated, monitored business, carried out as close as possible to local communities. Discover, step by step, how the group works the resource, adds value to it and supports the communes where it operates.
Caledonian nickel and the place of small miners
Nickel shapes the country's economy: it accounts for 22% of New Caledonia's gross domestic product, a figure recalled in August 2026 at a meeting between the Congress and the mining companies. Alongside the large metallurgical operators, the "small miners" extract and export raw ore. They form a historic link in the industry.
Groupe MAI is one of these long-standing players. The family story begins in 1956 at the Kouaoua mining centre; the company MKM (Maï Kouaoua Mines) was founded in 1984, first as a subcontractor. The group then became a direct operator thanks to the mining titles it acquired in its own name in N'Go Bay, at Mont-Dore: the path from haulier to exporter, unique in the country.
MKM is a member of the Syndicat des industries de la mine (SIM), which brings together the nine nickel companies of New Caledonia. Wilfrid Maï (1961-2024) chaired the SIM from 2013 to 2024: the group has long been involved in the life of its profession.
Read more: the place of small miners in Caledonian nickel.
The course of a mining operation, step by step
A mine cannot be improvised: every stage is regulated and monitored, from the administrative authorisations — the Ada mine obtained its operating permit in 2011, the Graziella mine on 1 April 2016 — to the loading of the ore carrier.
Environmental management, for its part, is not one stage among others: it runs alongside the whole production chain. Managing waste, water and dust, the controlled placement of compacted waste rock, the upkeep of roads and platforms, the dredging of protection structures, the rehabilitation of mined areas: at Groupe MAI, this is an ethic and a house culture. On the ground, the production chain is organised in four stages.
- Preparatory works. Opening and laying out the tracks, preparing the extraction areas, water management, stripping the waste rock.
- Extraction. Geological monitoring and management of the working faces, extraction of laterite and saprolite.
- Drying, sampling and analysis. The ore is dried by turning, then each batch is sampled and analysed. The laboratory is an essential link in the mining chain: its analyses track the quality of the ore, and nothing is hauled, stored or loaded without its results.
- Haulage and processing. The ore is moved to the processing unit, where it is screened and crushed, then carried on to the storage platforms or the wharf.
From the wharf, the group's barge fleet (2 tugboats, 5 barges of 500 tonnes, 1 barge of 600 tonnes) then carries the ore to the ore carrier: mooring, barging and operating the shipboard cranes.
This know-how is exercised on two fronts: as a direct operator on the group's mines in N'Go Bay, and as an operator on behalf of SLN at the Poro site, where SMP has run the entire chain since 2000, with 420,000 tonnes loaded in 2022.
Adding value to every tonne: the resource economy
Not all extracted ore is equally rich. Rather than limiting itself to the highest grades, the group has made adding value to low-grade ore a strategy in its own right. It also applies to stocks built up in the past, at Saint-Louis and in N'Go Bay. It is a resource-economy model: creating value from what has already been extracted.
This strategy rests on diversified, long-term outlets. In 2024, the group exported 215,000 tonnes of ore to China and Korea. In 2025, its export authorisations were raised to 450,000 tonnes, with partnerships secured until January 2031 with Glencore and until April 2035 with Japan's Pamco.
Saint-Louis: clearing stocks that rehabilitates
The Saint-Louis shoreline held old ore stocks inherited from past workings. Between 2009 and 2011, the group removed and reprocessed them. The operation was "an opportunity to redevelop the area", according to the group's environmental manager (Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, 2011).
This kind of stock clearing aims to clean up areas marked by former orphan mines. The operations are carried out in partnership with the public authorities and customary authorities. Removing the old stocks, putting them to use and redeveloping the sites: rehabilitation is part of the job.
Read more: Saint-Louis, clearing stocks to rehabilitate.
Local employment, a pillar of responsible mining
Mining supports the communes where it takes place. The group has made this an organising principle, with direct, measurable benefits.
- Wakondé. This company, created with MKM, has shareholders drawn mainly from the Saint-Louis and Ouen Island tribes, at Mont-Dore. It handles the loading of the ore carriers, 10 to 15 casual jobs for each operation. Its growth has enabled the creation of several haulage companies.
- Houaïlou. SMP is the commune's leading employer: 66 permanent staff, hauliers and casual workers, and more than 80 mining machines (2022 figures).
- N'Go Bay (Mont-Dore). In 2016, the group estimated at 200 the number of people who make a living from its mining activity: direct jobs, subcontractors and 13 independent hauliers who have worked with it since 2010.
- Training and handing down. SMP has supported the Poro training centre: in 2006, a class of 42 machine operators graduated there, 19 of them women. The Ada and Graziella mines regularly host school visits, as in 2014 and in 2021.
Alongside local communities
The group takes part in the life and development of the village neighbouring the mine. Its relations with the tribes and the customary authorities rest on dialogue, respect and humility, maintained year after year in the field.
This commitment takes concrete forms: local employment, training and helping young people into work, support and guidance for local projects, and involving the communities in the group's environmental work.
A member of the Syndicat des industries de la mine (SIM), the group also belongs to the SEM, the ore exporters' union — its union of choice.
Continue the tour
The path of the ore is only one part of the approach. Water management, upkeep of environmental protection structures, SLN's ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 45001 (health and safety) certifications, under whose coverage SMP works: you will find the details of these commitments on our Environment page.
To go further into the industry, the video clips and fact sheets of the C'Nickel campaign are freely available at cnickel.nc.
