In 1979, the Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres of the New Caledonia Territory launched a 5-year program to inventory mining activities and design strategies for prospecting and exploiting mineral resources. Its aim is to bring about diversification in an industry which is presently based mainly on the extraction of nickel, chromium, and cobalt associated with ultrabasic rocks. The island's most prospective areas have been investigated with the aid of a new 1/200,000 scale geologic map, published by the B.R.G.M. (J. P. Paris, 1981), and the results, combined with studies of about 300 showings, ancient mines, and new discoveries, are presented on a preliminary metallogenic map.

Ore bodies are concentrated in certain provinces or geologic units, or are aligned along major and minor tectonic features. The following are the most significant metallic mineral concentrations: the pre-Senonian mafic plutono-volcanic central units with Cu (Au) deposits, probably of the massive sulfide type; the Diahot Province, to the north with Cu, Pb, Zn (Au, Ag) deposits of volcano-sedimentary type, related to Senonian-Eocene mafic volcanic activity; the West Coast Basalts Province, with Cu (Au) deposits of massive sulfide type, and Mn deposits, related to Senonian-Eocene mafic volcanic activity; the East Coast Basalts Province, identical to the former western province; the mineral deposits related to major faults with Sb, Hb, W, and Cu deposits; the mineral occurrences related t Oligocene-Miocene granodioritic intrusions with Mo, W, Sb (Cu, Au) minor deposits.

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