At the age of 6, US Marines arrived in Nouméa after a major Pacific base was established by the Allies, and Dang was in frequent contact with them and learned English.
[3] In 1961 Dang returned to Nouméa to co-manage first a Citroën automobile dealership, and then met great success with his own Toyota import business and petrol station.
He suffered racism in his business affairs, particularly in the 1960s, in a city populated largely by Europeans protecting their monopoly, and particularly hostile to Vietnamese, three quarters of whom left New Caledonia in that decade to return to Vietnam during its war.
After the signing of the Accords de Matignon in 1988 he returned, and took on the Directorship of Société minière du sud Pacifique (SMSP), which had recently been sold by Jacques Lafleur to the Kanak-controlled SOFINOR operation as a gesture of political reconciliation.
In 2008 they opened a nickel smelter in South Korea and a series of deals led by Dang enabled construction of another, the huge Koniambo massif project where he had begun his life.
[4] The US$5.3 billion plant at Vavouto is operated by Koniambo Nickel SAS (KNS), a joint venture between the Northern Province’s SMSP and the transnational conglomerate Glencore-Xstrata.