Makatea Island lies 100 nautical miles north east from Tahiti, French Polynesia (Figure 1). From 1906 until 1966, 11 million tonnes of phosphatic sand was dug by hand from sand filled holes in the karst environment on this elevated island (Figure 2). 1100 ha of land was left unrehabilitated/uninhabitable with around a million holes, some 45 m deep. Starting from 1996, consideration was given to methods for rehabilitation of the mined area. CITATION: Randall, C, Faaeva, S and Egretaud, C J, 2019. Makatea Island exploration leads to new phosphate discovery, in Proceedings PACRIM 2019, pp 330335 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).