Abstract
After recalling the European appetite for plundering the subsoil of distant lands ("explorations" period, then colonization), and evoking the Spanish expedition of 1658 to the Islands that became known as the Solomon Islands, we will develop the "rebalancing" operated in New Caledonia by the Nouméa Accord and more recently. The project for a "northern" plant in the pro-independence Northern Province, the sale of the private company SMSP (Lafleur family) to this Province, and then, in 1997-98, the great turning point: the pro-independence movement asked the French government to persuade SLN (SMSP) to cede the Koniambo massif to them. The Nouméa Accord was signed in 1998. The "rebalancing" continues: recently, the pro-independence SMSP mining company signed an innovative agreement between them (Northern Province) and Korea for a circuit (from ore to steel) that bypasses the usual intermediaries (between miners and steelmakers) and gives SMSP 51% control.
