The New Caledonian Goro Nickel mining company says it is doing all it can to protect all species after claims by a local scientist that its mining operations may cause a disaster to the territory's bio-diversity.
The IRD scientist, Dr Bertrand Richer de Forges, wrote an open letter saying no significant studies have been done and up to 100 endemic species are threatened and may disappear once mining operations expand.
Dr Richer de Forges says there seems to be a consensus among mine operators, authorities and research organisations to keep silent.
But a spokesperson for the Goro Nickel company Catherine Guillaume, says it is doing all it can to protect all organisms.
"We have a plant nursery, we are having done indentures for more than eleven years and this plant nursery has been developed from high level technical statistics to be able to reproduce the plants that we have seen in the Goro Nickel project area. And today, there will be no problems."
