New Caledonia Financial News

trips go as planned. We were the last flight to touch down before the airport closed for an indefinite period. But driving down to Noumea, capital of New Caledonia, a French territory comprising dozens of islands in the South Pacific, we were still blissfully unaware of this. For nearly two weeks, we would sleep with the sonorous drone of choppers circling over our Hotel Le Paris, and we had no way of leaving the island. A state of emergency had been declared, a strict curfew imposed, and no restaurants or shops were open for business. Had we greedily ignored the warning signs? From East Timor we had planned to travel to Vanuatu via Sydney. But then Air Vanuatu announced its bankruptcy and cancelled all fights. Since we intended to travel onward to New Caledonia before returning to Singapore, we figured we might as well spend some extra time on Grand-Terre, the largest island in the Melanesian archipelago.

Jaume Pellicer led a team of fellow scientists into a forest on Grande Terre, an island east of Australia. They were in search of a fern called Tmesipteris oblanceolata. Standing just a few inches tall, it was not easy to find on the forest floor.

Global nickel prices have been soaring since violence erupted in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia last week

Also Read: Copper prices hit all-time high to break March 2022 record; what's driving the rally? Copper on the LME has surged by 28% this year, while SHFE copper has increased by 25%. SHFE copper inventories remain low compared to the beginning of 2024, despite May typically being a period of strong copper demand in China. Nickel prices have also risen sharply, nearing $21,000 per ton in the previous trading session, marking their highest level since September 2023.

SINGAPORE—For the past few years, the West has been trying to break China’s grip on minerals that are critical for defense and green technologies. Despite their efforts, Chinese companies are becoming more dominant, not less. They are expanding operations, supercharging supply and causing prices to drop.

France imposed an emergency Wednesday in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia for at least 12 days, boosting security forces' powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago where indigenous people have long sought independence. Armed clashes and other violence that erupted Monday following protests over voting reforms have left four people dead, including a gendarme, and injured more than 300, French authorities said.

Top Events of the Day: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address key rallies in Uttar Pradesh, while IBM announces a significant job expansion in Ireland, adding 800 AI-related positions. Meanwhile, Vedanta considers raising funds through equity shares, and NEET PG 2024's correction window closes today. France declares a state of emergency in New Caledonia amid violent protests.

When the world’s most valuable lithium company last year announced plans for a $1.3 billion plant in South Carolina, local officials hailed it as transformative for the Palmetto State. The high-tech project from Charlotte, N.C.-based Albemarle was designed to process different sources of lithium, including from recycled batteries, and serve as a supplier of the critical mineral for South Carolina’s burgeoning electric-vehicle industry. Less than a year later, those plans have been hobbled by a crash in battery metal prices, undercut by a slowdown in electric-vehicle sales growth in the U.S.

The mayor of future Olympic host city Paris says she is quitting X

Atlas Materials, which has developed a new technology to process low-grade nickel that can be used for electric vehicle batteries, has raised $27 million ahead of building a pilot plant in North America, the start-up firm said on Thursday. U.S.-based Atlas said it has come up with a way to treat a type of nickel ore usually used as an ingredient in stainless steel into a form that can be used for EV batteries with low emissions and no waste.

Voters in the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia cast ballots on Sunday in a referendum on whether to remain French in an Indo-Pacific region of increasing global importance.