The Vale industrial site in New Caledonia, shut down due to the violence triggered by its takeover, has again been the target of fires and damage, Vale-NC management indicated on Tuesday (December 15th).
The fire broke out in the early evening Monday and destroyed a stock of tires, machinery, administrative offices and a stock of oil on the site of this cobalt and nickel hydrometallurgy plant, classified Seveso 2 and located in the south of the archipelago.
“These degradations are organized, premeditated and extremely violent.
These are acts of sabotage whose objective is to harm, destroy and injure, ”
Vale-NC said in a statement.
To read also: Sébastien Lecornu: "The Republic is not weak in New Caledonia"
The Brazilian industrialist said the troublemakers
"fled when the firefighters arrived
,
"
while rioters last week
"cut a pipe"
of water and dug a
"trench"
on the road, which complicated the intervention of the rescue teams.
The fires, started in several places, were brought under control during the night and caused, according to civil security, hydrocarbon pollution in a river located below.
These new abuses come as this chemical plant, backing onto the rich Goro deposit, has been stationary and under the protection of the police since Thursday, after being stormed with trucks by pro-independence activists, opposed on its sale to a consortium with Trafigura, trader in raw materials.
The FLNKS (Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front), the “southern factory: country factory” collective and the Indigenous Customary Negotiating Body (ICAN), refuse this transaction and advocate nationalization of mineral resources.
To read also: New Caledonia: how to explain the independence push?
All last week, this explosive file was at the origin of an outbreak of violence on the Caillou, which revived the opposition between separatists and non-separatists.
Monday evening, the Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu, spoke by videoconference with officials of the FLNKS, who
"transmitted
(their)
positions"
.
A new contact should take place at the end of the week.