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Goro Nickel S.A., a joint venture of Inco Ltd. of Canada and of BRGM of France, plans to build an open-pit mine, a processing plant and a deep-sea port to recover nickel and cobalt from laterite ore deposits in the Province Sud of the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. The current plan is to produce 54,000 tonnes/year of nickel oxide and 5,400 tonnes/year of cobalt carbonate filter cake for a 20-year period or longer. The tailings would be stored in an impoundment and the tailings supernatant would be piped offshore to a deep submarine diffuser in Canal de la Havannah.

Overview

The project area has large laterite ore reserves that can be excavated with shovels and trucks. The main environmental issues were storing tailings safely, protecting local water quality and protecting coral reefs and other marine life in Canal de la Havannah. The solution was to store the moist tailings on land and pipe the tailing supernatant through a submarine pipeline to a diffuser in the center channel of the Canal where it can be rapidly diluted to non-toxic concentrations.

Experience

Rescan scientists (meteorologists, hydrologists, soil scientists, botanists, oceanographers and fisheries biologists) conducted environmental baseline surveys of the project area in 1999 and 2000 and completed an Environmental Impact Assessment of the project in March 2001. All aspects of the terrestrial, freshwater and marine environment were studied.