Pictured: Indonesia’s net zero nickel boom fuels destruction of rainforests and coral reefs

Rainforest and coastal communities are being destroyed in the race to transition away from fossil fuels

Swathes of rainforest and coastal communities are being destroyed by a nickel mining boom in Indonesia sparked by the race to transition away from fossil fuels.
Across the country, a major drive to exploit the country’s abundant natural resources is underway. These photographs capture the sheer scale of the production process.
Rows of chimneys, belching smoke and fumes, tower over the schools and houses of what were once rural communities in scenes recalling the work of L.S. Lowry, whose paintings captured life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century.
Indonesia is now the world’s largest nickel producer, with 15 per cent of the globe’s lateritic nickel resources – typically low-grade deposits found near the surface.
But demand is still soaring in tandem with the rise of the electric vehicles (EVs), which depend on it for their batteries.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that global demand for the metal will grow at least 65 per cent by 2030, and EVs and battery storage are set to take over from stainless steel as the largest end user of nickel by 2040.
Billion dollar Chinese firms anchor the nickel market in Indonesia, but they are often fed cheap ore by hundreds of smaller, mostly locally-owned mines that dot the rainforest. These mines have transformed once-peaceful agrarian villages and communities, providing economic opportunity but a health and environmental crisis looms from pollution.
In just three years, Indonesia has signed more than a dozen deals worth more than $15 billion for battery materials and electric vehicle production with global manufacturers including Hyundai, LG and Foxconn.
In 2021, Indonesia unveiled a new nickel smelter in North Morowali Regency of Central Sulawesi. It has been equipped to process 13 million tons of nickel ore annually.
Sulawesi, an Indonesian island east of Borneo, is a peaceful land known for its pristine coral reefs, dive sites and prehistoric cave paintings. But it is fast becoming an industrial heartland.
The chimneys of PT Obsidian Stainless Steel, a nickel processing complex, spew smoke into the air 24-hours a day, with flames lighting up the night sky.
The land in Molawe district – once filled with vibrant fishing villages – is peppered with craters left by large scale mining.
The coastline has been abandoned. Sandy beaches are discoloured with a kaleidoscope of ore pigments and dotted with jetties where barges wait to deliver nickel ore.
After sunrise in the village of Labola, thousands of workers on scooters, clad in yellow helmets and dust-stained overalls, thronged the pothole-ridden main road. The mass of traffic crawled toward the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, better known as IMIP, the heart of the country’s nickel production.
IMIP primarily processes nickel ore for stainless steel but now is increasingly producing higher-grade nickel for electric vehicle batteries.
Labota was once a fishing village, but today it has been subsumed into a sprawling city centred around IMIP, with 50 factories sprawling across nearly 10,000 acres worth $15 billion.
Built as a joint venture between Chinese and Indonesian industrial companies, Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry said that IMIP had 28,000 employees in 2019 and 43,000 in 2020. That number has now grown to around 66,000.
Roughly 6,000 workers from China live in dormitory blocks. After the afternoon shift ended at 5pm, Chinese workers left the nickel ore processing complex or smelter of Obsidian Stainless Steel in Morosi, Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi.
Some were dressed casually or were in uniform, while others were neatly dressed, and a few others looked shabby and covered in mud. They headed straight for a makeshift market or to eat at the Chinese restaurant on the roadside in front of the smelter.
Investigations have revealed the widespread exploitation of Chinese workers in some of the nickel factories, where they are forced to work long hours with little pay, and enjoy few workers’ rights. China Labour Watch recently found illegal contracting practices, workplace injuries and deaths, dangerous conditions, abuse, and an overall culture of silence, are commonplace.
According to a report by German policy lobby group Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (RLS), the nickel-processing factories at IMIP pollute the air by spewing out sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and coal ash — particles that are “finer than beach sand and can be extremely harmful when inhaled”.
In Labota village, an Islamic school called Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTSN) has a coal plant operating just behind it. Pupils are constantly exposed to coal dust in the air.
Fishermen have also suffered from the impact of nickel pollution, having to travel further and further afield to find their daily catch. But fish are harder to catch in the deeper water and fishermen have to spend more money on petrol.
At Tapunggaya, a village in the North Konawe Regency in Southeat Sulawesi province, locals said pollution had destroyed their livelihoods.
“There are no fish here anymore,” said Alwi, a 78-year-old fisherman sitting next to a boat. “Children also suffer from respiratory problems due to the very severe air pollution here, which is very disturbing,” he added.
Other fishermen described the seawater as murky and said it often becomes so warm that it causes the fish to move away.
“We have to drive the boat at least two hours away and probably bring home just two kilograms of fish after a long day at sea,” another fisherman, named Mamat, said.
Locals have reported their land being seized by conglomerates without their consent.
The impact of the nickel mining boom reaches far inland.
In order to mine nickel, large areas of trees are cut down and the land is excavated to create open pits. With the roots of the trees no longer present to stabilise the ground, when it rains earth is more easily swept away.
In 2022, there were at least 21 floods and mudslides in Southeast Sulawesi, according to government data. Comparatively, between 2005 and 2008, before the proliferation of mines, there were two to three per year, according to the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasures.
Other environmental hazards of expanding mining operations include pollution of water streams and fishing grounds.
Alwi said that the lives of his fellow villagers have changed forever.
“The waste and pollution from mining have been killing us slowly,” he said.
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