Geography of New Caledonia point is Mont Panié at elevation. The total area of New Caledonia is , of those being land. A territorial dispute exists with regard to the uninhabited Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are claimed by both France (as part of New Caledonia) and Vanuatu. The New Caledonian archipelago is a microcontinental island chain which originated as a fragment of Zealandia, a nearly submerged continent or microcontinent which was part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana during the time of the dinosaurs. The Grande Terre group of New Caledonia, with Mont Panié at as its highest point, is the most elevated
Nickel mining in New Caledonia of the total value of exports. New Caledonia has the longest history of mining in the Pacific islands. Nickel was found in New Caledonia in 1864 by the engineer Jules Garnier. It was distributed in the ore layers which cover about one third of the area of the main island of New Caledonia. The nickel concentration was inhomogeneous and also varied with the depth. Whereas its usual concentration was 2–5 percent, it could reach 10–15 percent in scattered deposits of green garnierite. Those areas were developed first using primitive manual extraction methods and were gradually depleted, resulting in the present