Research products
p. 23-32
Texte intégral
1There have been numerous and varied research products of relevance to mining activity and the impacts on development. IRD has undoubtedly made important and innovative contributions to creating the products presented in this chapter. The Institute’s background in soil physics and chemistry, and in the study of biodiversity, has been fundamentally important.
Academic publications
2Original articles on the different fields explored by the research have been published in international journals. Document 2 contains references to the main publications (2003-2008):
- soil geophysics and geochemistry: 12 publications related to deposits and mining activity, followed by two publications related to asbestos studies;
- fields of ecological soil restoration: seven publications.
Establishment of a fungus collection
3In the framework of land restoration studies, the characterisation of New Caledonia’s plant ecosystems led to the establishment of a collection of reference fungi managed by the local mycological society (see below) and duplicated at the MNHN in Paris. Ecto and endomycorrhizal fungi have proved to be one of the keys to the adaptation of plants to the conditions of New Caledonia’s lateritic soils and are therefore an indispensable lever in plans to restore land degraded by the mining activity. At the same time, additions were made to the pre-existing New Caledonia herbarium at the IRD centre in Nouméa. On this occasion, a method for georeferencing the location of species in the field was launched.
Creation of a mycological society
4The innovative studies of fungi provided an opportunity to create the Mycological Society of New Caledonia in 2008. The mission of the SMNC1 association is to encourage studies of New Caledonian fungi and to disseminate their findings as widely as possible.
Standards, methods, guides, analysis procedures, etc. for service companies and mining companies alike
5One of the expected outcomes of the industrial contracts signed by IRD and the mining industries (SLN, Falconbridge-SMSP, Goro Nickel) was the drafting and provision by researchers of “standards” and “methods” for industrial operators with a view to optimising prospection and ore extraction techniques, but also for the remediation of degraded environments.
6Numerous reports and recommendations were therefore submitted to industrial operators and local authorities, sometimes at the numerous contractual working sessions. Examples (Document 3) include:
- applied geophysical projects with confidential quarterly reports;
- studies on mining areas with reports transmitted to the New Caledonian government and local authorities, as well as to mining operators, concerning mineralised regoliths;
- studies on asbestos with reports submitted to the Ministry of Overseas France and the New Caledonian government;
- applied conclusions of doctoral theses carried out in collaboration with mining operators; i) Nicolas Perrier: Biogéodiversité fonctionnelle des sols latéritiques miniers: application à la restauration écologique, massif du Koniambo (Functional biogeodiversity of mineral-rich lateritic soils: application to ecological restoration, Koniambo massif) (IRD-Cerege and LSTM in collaboration with IAC, UNC, Falconbridge/SMSP); ii) Alexandre Lagrange: Études écologiques et microbiologiques des espèces du genre Costularia : application à la restauration écologique (Ecological and microbiological studies of species of the genus Costularia : application to ecological restoration), in collaboration with Cerege, UNC, IAC, Pacific Siras. A summary guide to land restoration was drawn up (Document 4).
7These documents also subsequently served as the basis for changes to the Mining Code (2009), the reference framework in force for mining in New Caledonia, the mining development scheme (2009) and the provincial Environmental Codes (2008-2009).
International scientific symposia
8Several symposia were held over the research period. Both researchers and scientists contributed to these events by participating in the traditional exchanges of results within the scientific community.
9However, particular emphasis should be placed on a major international event initiated by Cerege and jointly coordinated by IAC, Cirad, BRGM, CNRS and UNC Live, also involving the local IRD joint research units, as it played a particularly important role in initiating the impacts produced by the research. This was the international colloquium entitled “Preservation and ecological restoration in tropical mining environments: Technical, scientific and strategic perspectives” held in Nouméa in 2003. The idea was to bring together international and national expertise, share knowledge and develop on a research strategy for the future. Private operators and local authorities were also heavily involved in the organisation, financing and active participation of their agents, both at the conference venue at the IRD centre in Nouméa and on the mining sites. During this event, an initial presentation of the research outcomes, discussed by the different stakeholders concerned (miners, local populations, scientists), led to a list of objectives being drawn up.
10This consultation culminated in a major outcome at this colloquium: a roadmap addressing the challenges posed by the consequences of mining activity in New Caledonia. This document guided the implementation of many actions that were responsible for the political, environmental and health impacts covered in this study. This roadmap was formalised in the slide show that concluded this colloquium (Document 5).
11In addition, many of the researchers and professors who came to the symposium were won over by the scientific approach and subsequently contributed their expertise, further expanding the networks of expertise that had been developed.
Agora White Paper
12The roadmap that emerged from the 2003 symposium and the conclusions of the conference on French research in the Pacific (Nouméa, IRD centre, 2004) highlighted the need to reflect on the role of human and social sciences in New Caledonia. At the request of the President of the New Caledonian government, IRD proposed to organise a workshop with its local partners, involving the Credo.2 Driven by this strong desire to reflect on promoting disciplinary and institutional decompartmentalisation in order to open up human and social sciences (SHS), “Agora” events were organised in 2006, and concrete proposals for structures, programmes and methodological tools were formalised. The recommendations can be found in a White Paper entitled La recherche en sciences humaines et sociales en Nouvelle-Calédonie (Human and social science research in New Caledonia) (Document 6). Following this workshop, UMR-Gred, which was asked by Cerege to participate in research on the societal impacts of mining activity, started operating out of the IRD centre in Nouméa.
Dissemination of scientific knowledge to society
13Conferences for the general public were organised in the towns and villages of New Caledonia, particularly among the Melanesian tribes, with the aim of sharing scientific and traditional knowledge and informing the local population about the progress made in research projects and how this could be beneficial at the societal level.
14Reports and films were produced on issues and research methods associated with mining activity in general, on ecosystems and their profusion of plant varieties, their endemic biodiversity including that of micro-organisms (bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi), and their role in maintaining the functional equilibrium of soils and therefore in the remediation of degraded soils. L’Île Nickel (Nickel Island), 2007, a 52-minute film co-produced by IRD, Europimages and Public Sénat, showed local and national audiences the role of scientific research in addressing the questions raised by citizens and in promoting sustainable development in the context of mining activities and their impacts.
15Research outcomes were also used to update the Atlas de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (Atlas of New Caledonia), a project coordinated and co-financed by IRD at the request of the Congress of New Caledonia, which began in 2008 and was finalised in 2012.
Resources: monitoring stations
16Stations were set up to monitor the impacts of mining in 2004, in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The levels of metals in soils, sediments, plants and water were regularly analysed, in addition to rainfall, temperatures and lagoon currents. These stations were developed predominantly in the south-western region of New Caledonia and are components of the impact observatory that monitors the Goro-Vale project. The data collected are added to metadata bases, whose interoperability has enabled the development of multi-scale and spatio-temporal analyses of the impacts generated.
Reinforcement and optimisation of platforms
17The platforms were reinforced during the development of the research programmes. This involved normative upgrades to the Lama’s methodologies and equipment as well as to the protocols for soil preparation and capillary electrophoresis in chemistry. The life science platform was created on a co-management basis with UNC and IAC at the IRD centre in Nouméa, in order to carry out genetic sequencing analyses of plants.
Collegial surveys
18A collegial survey of invasive species was conducted from 2003 to 2006: Les espèces envahissantes dans l’archipel néo-calédonien à la demande du gouvernement de Nouvelle-Calédonie (Invasive Species in the New Caledonian Archipelago at the request of the Government of New Caledonia).3 Indeed, mining-induced deforestation also contributes to the development of invasive species as a consequence of deforestation.
19A collegial survey of energy management in the development of New Caledonia enabled the performance of exhaustive assessments of domestic and industrial mining consumption, including carbon emissions, and the proposal of alternative solutions (2008-2011).4
Capacity building: teaching
20IRD researchers have been regularly solicited to contribute to teaching at the University of New Caledonia.
21Following on from the DEUST undergraduate diploma in Applied Geosciences: Mining, Water and Environment, a professional bachelor’s degree on mining licence was developed and then discontinued.
22A PPF (multidisciplinary research programme by the MERS) on “Functional biodiversity, alterations and transfers in the ecosystems of the catchment areas and lagoons of New Caledonia”, involving IRD and UNC teams, was launched in 2008 for four years.
Capacity building: student training
23Approximately 40 students on DEA postgraduate programmes, studying for master’s degrees or on internships were trained by the research teams during the 2001-2008 period.
Nickel processing plant, Koniambo Nickel SAS, North Province of New Caledonia.

© IRD/J.-M. Boré
24Several theses were supervised:
- three theses were produced during the 2003-2008 period, relating to research in the field of environmental geosciences (geochemistry, geophysics, geomorphology, biology), in collaboration with local public and private partners, with IRD grants, Cifre funding and BRGM funding;
- three theses were begun in 2007 and 2008 (finalised in 2009 and 2010), funded by the university, Cifre and the Institut Pasteur;
- Postdoctoral studies were carried out in 2003 in partnership with SLN (Geophysical Validation of Tomography).
Timeline of Mining Activity in New Caledonia

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