Société Le Nickel (SLN): a nickel operation in New Caledonia

Société Le Nickel (SLN) is a ferronickel operation producing nickel in New Caledonia, operated by Societe Le Nickel (SLN). The sources report 36.3 kt-Ni content, ferronickel production for CY2025; the basis is as reported by owner (Eramet), SLN company total. In nickel content, whole-operation output for CY2025 is 36,300 tonnes: about 0.9% of world nickel output in 2025 and about 26% of New Caledonia's; it is one of 8 operations on this site whose output can be stated in nickel content.

Who owns and operates it?

Owners of Société Le Nickel (SLN)
Owner	Interest	As of
Eramet Eramet's percentage of SLN is not printed in the sources used	—	31 December 2025
New Caledonia local authorities local authorities of New Caledonia, listed by Eramet among the joint shareholders in its main subsidiaries	34%	31 December 2025
Minority shareholder (not named) a minority shareholder holding 10% had asked Eramet to acquire its stake (not named in the release)	10%	18 February 2026

Interests are as stated in the sources below on the date shown. Ownership changes with deals, so a stake may have changed since the date shown.

How much does it produce?

Reported output of Société Le Nickel (SLN)
Period	Output	Basis	Where in the source
CY2025	36.3 kt-Ni content, ferronickel production Nickel ore production is printed as 2,965 with the unit "Mwmt" in the table, while the text on the same page gives 3.0 Mwmt; ore exports are printed as 568 in the same table.	as reported by owner (Eramet), SLN company total	PDF p.29, Appendix 9 table row "Ferronickel production - (kt-Ni content)", FY 2025; text PDF p.29 · Eramet
CY2024	32.9 kt-Ni content, ferronickel production	as reported by owner (Eramet), SLN company total	PDF p.29, same row, FY 2024 · Eramet

Between CY2024 and CY2025 the reported figure rose by 10.3%, in the same unit and on the same basis.

How the nickel-content figure is worked out. Eramet reports 36.3 thousand tonnes of nickel content in ferronickel for SLN as a standalone company (Appendix 9), rounded to the nearest 100 tonnes. The table is not labelled attributable or 100%. World mine production of nickel in 2025 was 3,900,000 tonnes (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026); New Caledonia produced 140,000 tonnes.

Status: operating, as of 31 December 2025.

The figure comes from Eramet, the owner and not SLN itself. Eramet states that SLN's mining activity remains affected by the closure of certain mining sites after the riots of the first half of 2024.
Eramet excludes SLN from its adjusted group indicators because the French State financed its losses in 2024 and 2025.
The figure is nickel in the processed product (nickel pig iron, ferronickel, mixed hydroxide or sulfide), not nickel mined, and it is compared with USGS mine production, so the share of world output is indicative.

How does it compare?

Other nickel operations on this site: Weda Bay Nickel, Nickel Industries' four RKEF plants, Huayue Nickel Cobalt (nickel), Antam ferronickel, Kolaka, Taganito HPAL (THPAL), Coral Bay Nickel (CBNC), Nornickel group (Norilsk and Kola), Sudbury (Vale), Thompson (Vale), Voisey's Bay (Vale), Onça Puma, Integrated Nickel Operations (Glencore). See where nickel comes from for the country totals, the country page for New Caledonia.

Sources

Eramet: Eramet: structural measures to strengthen balance sheet and prepare the future, after a challenging year 2025 (full-year results press release, Paris, 18 February 2026) (results press release, FY2025 (calendar), FY2024 comparatives). Opened 3 November 2026; used: PDF pp.1, 6, 10, 11, 20, 29, 30.
Eramet: Integrated Report 2025/2026 (Committed to sustainable metals) (integrated report, FY2025). Opened 3 November 2026; used: PDF pp.20, 44.
U.S. Geological Survey: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Nickel (government statistical summary, 2025 (world and country mine production)). Opened 3 November 2026; used: world and country mine production table.

Method and limits

Reported, not estimated. Output is the figure the operator or owner published, in the unit it used. This site does not estimate output where none is published.
Shares. A share divides output in nickel content by the USGS world or country total for 2025. Where the operator's year is a fiscal year or the unit is a concentrate or a carbonate equivalent, the share is approximate or not given.
Whole operation or owner's share. The basis column says which. A joint venture's output is never counted twice.
Partial list. Only operations with a published figure are listed, so the rank is among those on this site, not among every nickel mine. Shares of a country's output mix periods and bases, so treat them as indicative.
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