The company Goro Nickel, of the Canadian group INCO, has signed a contract with Technip-Coflexip in association with the American group Bechtel, for the engineering, project management, procurement of equipment and materials and construction of a nickel-cobalt production complex at Goro, in the south of New Caledonia. This engineering and project management contract represents about 12% of the overall targeted investment, which amounts to USD 1.4 billion. This contract follows the selection by Goro Nickel, in June 2001, of the joint venture Bechtel/Technip-Coflexip as project manager for the development of the project in association with Hatch Associates of Canada, as designated subcontractor of the joint venture. The Goro complex will have an annual production capacity of 54,000 tons of nickel and 5,400 tons of cobalt. The facilities include a hydrometallurgical ore processing plant, mining facilities, a power plant, chemical plants, a port and other infrastructures. Detailed engineering will be carried out from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, with the participation of Technip-Coflexip’s engineering center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Numerous French and in particular New Caledonian firms will be participating in the project. Production at the Goro complex is scheduled to begin at the end of 2004.
