Negotiations for a sale of New Caledonia's Vale nickel plant have been extended by a month and a half.
Vale had been in talks with New Century Resources of Australia since late May when they announced a two-month period to conclude the financial arrangements for the sale.
The agreed deadline passed at the weekend but the two sides decided to extend it with an expectation to complete the sale process by the end of the year.
The Vale plant was put up for sale in December after running up losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Vale is restructuring its operations and wants to sell nickel ore but pro-independence parties firmly oppose changes to the mining code to allow this.
Vale's changes also involved prioritising the production of NHC, or nickel hydroxide cake, which was in demand for batteries for electric vehicles.
