Laterite landscape

In the deep south of New Caledonia, laterite is a brick-red soil resulting from the weathering of an iron-bearing rock.

One hundred and twenty years of open-pit mining have left large, gaping, reddish wounds in the landscape, destroying the beauty of the landscapes, polluting rivers, water catchments and the lagoon, and multiplying the risk of landslides.

Long considered an integral part of the mining industry essential for development, environmental degradation was only really a concern and authorities only really became a concern in the early 1970s, just after the nickel boom.