New Caledonia, a reserve of nickel (and more): France and the EU are keeping it close

Brussels – New Caledonia: so distant, yet so strategic. Because of its position in the Pacific, which provides an outpost in that part of the world. But above all because of what lies underground and in its seabed. Specifically nickel, essential for the energy transition and defence — today’s new priorities for the European Union. It’s easier to understand why French President Emmanuel Macron has wanted to keep a tight hold on the archipelago, more than 16,700 kilometres from Paris.

The European Commission knows that France’s overseas territory is a treasure trove. “New Caledonia holds significant nickel resources and industrial processing capacities that
make it an important actor in global nickel value chains,” said Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President responsible for Industry, in response to a parliamentary question, which asks why the French archipelago is not at the heart of EU strategy. 

There is certainly a geographical challenge, namely its distance from the European mainland. New Caledonia lies 1,500 kilometres off the east coast of Australia, making it a journey of over 26 hours from Paris. It is certainly a challenge, but that does not detract from the fact that the EU executive intends to promote “closer integration of New Caledonia into
European critical raw materials value chains.”

https://www.eunews.it/2026/02/13/lue-ha-bisogno-del-nichel-russo-e-non-lo-sanziona-e-il-porto-di-rotterdam-lo-vende-nel-mondo/

 It is no coincidence that the CaledoNi project in New Caledonia features amongst the strategic initiatives announced by the Commission in June 2025, as part of a wider list of 13 strategic projects aimed at ensuring access to raw materials and supporting local value creation. This project, Séjourné assures, “will help boost nickel production,
address existing environmental disturbances, create both direct and indirect jobs, and generate
local value creation.“

In addition, succeeding in increasing nickel extraction and production would mean breaking free from foreign dependencies. At present, the EU is 80 per cent dependent on Chinese or Indonesian production, and this figure rises to 90 per cent for refined nickel. New Caledonia alone is the world’s leading source of nickel, holding around 25 per cent of the total reserves of this natural resource. The issue of delivery times and supply routes remains, but the EU is not standing idly by. 

“New Caledonia has potential for copper, zinc, manganese, platinum, antimony, magnesium and bismuth“, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission noted. These are all raw materials essential to the EU’s green and digital transitions, and for which the EU depends on unreliable foreign countries, starting with China (antimony, manganese, magnesium, zinc). Russia, with which the EU is at loggerheads, holds the largest reserves of many of these natural resources (antimony, magnesium, platinum). Meanwhile, the US has significant zinc mines, but relations with Trump’s America are not exactly cordial either.

The EU has a real treasure in New Caledonia, and has no intention of giving it up. On the contrary, “the Commission is therefore actively working to advance its Strategic
Projects, including CaledoNi, to strengthen the EU’s security of supply,” Séjourné said. Given the global context, France will hold on ever more tightly to its overseas territory.