Vale puts its New Caledonia nickel stake up for sale

The Vale nickel plant and its huge ore reserves in New Caledonia's south have been put up for sale.

Its Brazilian owner has been incurring losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars and decided to pull out after earlier contemplating to mothball the site.

Vale, which acquired the project when it took over the Canadian miner Inco in 2006, is estimated to have spent $US9 billion on the Goro plant.

Walter Zweifel has been following the story and Ben Robinson Drawbridge asked him what prompted the sale.