The brokering of this deal by André Dang Van Nha, an important industrialist sympathetic to Kanak interests, and other key individuals involved a swap of mining titles with other SLN nickel mines, political interventions, and clever bargaining to provide financing and a supply of nickel to the smelter development.
[4] The budgeted US$5.3 billion plant[5] at Vavouto was operated by Koniambo Nickel SAS (KNS) over the period between November 2014[6] and August 2024.
[5] The project, which was inaugurated by French president Francois Hollande and Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg,[9] was a joint venture between the Northern Province’s Société minière du sud Pacifique (SMSP) and Xstrata.
[2] The Northern Province has a 51% share,[2] making this one of the largest mines in the world with majority Indigenous ownership and control.
"[5] By February 2024, it was said to remain "an unsustainable operation and Glencore cannot justify continuing to fund losses to the detriment of its shareholders.
[16] By a quirk of fate, Dang was born at Koniambo to an indentured Vietnamese labourer in 1936, and his father, who died in 1937 in a mining accident, is buried at Voh.
[citation needed] In September 2023, Glencore announced it was planning to pull out completely from the deal with SMSP to operate Koniambo, unless the fortunes of the mine changed by February 2024, in a period of low nickel prices.