[Ferro-Alloys.com] As reported in 27 October, New Caledonia government has authorized a sole company to export low-grade nickel ore to China. Under the agreement, MKM Corp. will sell 300,000 tones of nickel ore to China in the coming 18 months. New Caledonia accounts for a quarter of nickel resources and 7 percent of laterite-nickel in the world.

In early August, the government and mining executives voted the resolution down and has aroused protest activities, after that the parliament reluctantly support the proposal to export nickel to China, the world’s largest commodity consumer.

Since early 2011, nickel price has tumbled more than half of it, which caused an divergence inside New Caledonian government where someone stood for developing new markets and others tend to limit sales to support the nickel price.

Noumea politicians predicted that the nickel industry’s possibly loss of more than $1-billion this year would apread to domestic 3 smelting plants and distributors sooner or later.

• [Editor:Juan]