10 Jan 2018

Cars burned in attack on New Caledonia mine

6:40 am on 10 January 2018

There has been a fresh spate of vandalism at a New Caledonian mine site on the east coast of the main island.

Nickel mine in New Caledonia

Nickel mine in New Caledonia Photo: AFP

Five cars have been burned at the base of the Ballande mine in Nakety, triggering a shutdown of operations.

The perpetrators also damaged mining trucks and ransacked a building late on Sunday night.

The mine, beloning to the Ballande group, was targetted three years ago when light vehicles were found crushed by huge mining trucks, which in turn were dumped in ditches.

In 2014, diggers were used to wreck technical installations, some of which were set on fire.

That incident caused an estimated $US 5 million in damages.