2024-04-12 15:22:18
At midnight sharp, on the evening of Wednesday April 10, the mines of Société Le Nickel (SLN) located in the Northern province fell silent. Gone are the sweeping of mining machines and the noise of ore sorters, the 750 employees of SLN (which has 2,359 employees in total) are now busy with tasks “site security”, while awaiting a hypothetical agreement between the company and the emblematic president of the northern province of New Caledonia, the separatist Paul Néaoutyine. One more episode in the serious nickel crisis that the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire had committed to resolving in a new “pact”. And this, at a time when the political crisis over the freezing of the electorate is also reaching a climax in New Caledonia: on Saturday, 20,000 pro-independence and non-independence demonstrators are expected in Nouméa.
Paul Néaoutyine, a man with words as rare as they are sharp, banged his fist on the table on Wednesday, putting SLN on notice to provide the financial guarantees necessary for the four-year operation of its nine mining sites located in the Northern province. Guarantees intended to cover environmental damage in the event of an accident or company failure, which amount to 30 million euros for this province alone, 52 million for all SLN mining sites in the territory.
A legal obligation for Paul Néaoutyine, a dead weight in an accounting already in the red for the management of the SLN. Five months of conciliation procedure having not allowed the SLN to redress its situation, its general director, Jérôme Fabre, announced on Wednesday that he was requesting its placement under ad hoc mandate at the commercial court. To date, the company’s cash flow only gives it visibility until the end of May.
On Wednesday, Eramet – of which the State is a 27% shareholder, and which has nevertheless announced on several occasions that it would no longer finance its Caledonian subsidiary – finally came to the aid of SLN, by releasing the amount of guarantees for a period only two months. First refusal from Paul Néaoutyine who orders the cessation of mining activity. Thing done at midnight and new call for help from Eramet which promises to guarantee twelve months of activity, against the four years required by the Northern province.
Situation explosive
Real difficulty or carpet merchant negotiation? The SLN announced Thursday evening the resumption of its activity this Friday without waiting for approval from the province before backing down, faced with a new angry letter from Paul Néaoutyine, and perhaps also the start of internal protest: “We had given instructions to our members not to resume activity, to remain on duty, but above all not to resume the machines”declared Arnold Delrieu, deputy general secretary of the majority mine union, the CSTNC, on radio Nouvelle-Calédonie la 1re. A few hours later, an inter-union press release called for “the general management of SLN with the assistance of Eramet to meet all regulatory requirements”.
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