NEW CALEDONIA / NOUVELLE-CALÉDONIE - KANAKY.
Thiebaghi abandoned Mine.
Airmail stamp issued on 23.11.1994.
Face value: 90 CFP francs.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Design: François Guiol.
Printed by Cartor Security Printing, Meaucé (France).
Catalogues
- Michel No. 1024.
- Scott No. C269.
- StampWorld No. 1024.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1027.
- Yvert et Tellier No. PA 326.
In 1877 some scattered deposits of chromite were discovered on the Thiebaghi (or Tiebaghi) plateau, northwest of the island of New Caledonia, at an elevation of 580 m (1,900 ft), and from 1902 to 1920 the mineral was mined in an open pit about 100 m (328 ft) deep and 200 m (656 ft) wide. Chromium was mined underground from 1927, and in 1941 it was the largest mine for this mineral in the world. After several incidents, the mine closed in 1962, and its exploitation resumed in 1982 through another access road to the base of the deposit. The chromite mine closed permanently in 1992, and now nickel ore is mined from the Thiebaghi massif.
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