The nickel industry in Indonesia, the dark and deadly side of electric cars

The nickel business is experiencing its best moment in Indonesia, where the largest deposits of this metal in the world are located. It is a fundamental component for the manufacture of electric car batteries; However, its success has a dark and dangerous undertone. In the last decade, Indonesia has become a 'paradise' for the extraction and processing of nickel, mainly thanks to the investment of Chinese companies and their enormous influence in the global chain. of electric vehicles, but the human and environmental cost of this growing industry has been very high: pollution, diseases, labor exploitation and fatal accidents. A report by journalists Matthew Campbell and Annie Lee of Bloomberg Businessweek reveals that the nickel from these plants is present in the supply chain that feeds practically all the main sellers of electric cars, including Tesla, so it is already an indispensable part of the so-called “green revolution” of the automotive industry. What is nickel used for? in an electric car? Nickel increases the energy density of the battery cells, allowing it to travel greater distances on a single charge. But first, it requires extensive processing to be incorporated into the batteries. The first step is casting, a process that takes place in facilities such as the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park on the island of Sulawesi. Raw nickel ore is heated, often to extreme temperatures, to separate the valuable metal. Companies such as China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt then further process the nickel and supply it to battery manufacturers around the world, so The assembled packages are installed in vehicles from companies such as Elon Musk's Tesla, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Stellantis, Toyota, among others. (Bloomberg) Unsafe working conditions and health problems However, these mining complexes, paradoxically , have become the blessing and, at the same time, the nightmare of thousands of inhabitants who live nearby. Although the workers in these factories are grateful to have a job, they also fear for their lives due to constant accidents and poor safety conditions in their facilities. This situation was even more evident in December 2023. An explosion in the foundry of the Chinese company Tsingshan left 21 dead, 8 of them Chinese and 13 Indonesians, who suffered serious burns. Although this has not been the only incident of this nature.Trend Asia, a non-governmental organization based in Jakarta, recorded 543 deaths due to accidents in Indonesian nickel factories from 2015 to 2022, while in the first 11 months of 2023, recorded 17 deaths. The above without counting the 'dark figure' of those events that are not reported in the media. Workers interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek said they had witnessed workplace accidents ranging from burns due to slag (the waste left over from nickel smelting) during work maintenance, failures in heavy machinery that ended in tragedy, as well as the risk of poisoning due to the lack of protection against coal dust. Residents who live near some of these plants also claim to experience “lack of air” and respiratory illnesses , due to the mixture of emissions from foundries and power plants, as well as dust from mines and coal deposits. Additionally, the area's water turned a rusty red color, a result of runoff from mining operations. Although the long-term effects of exposure to the contaminants are still unclear, health experts suggest residents are at risk. Nickel mines in Indonesia A nickel mine in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Monday, July 10, 2023. Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg (Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg)How did Indonesia become the 'king' of the nickel? Indonesia's nickel reserves were long considered to be of low quality for use in batteries, but after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono banned exports of raw nickel ore in 2014, the country began to become more involved in the mining of this compound, from battery manufacturing to the assembly of finished cars. Indonesia, by offering cheap labor, low energy costs from cheap coal and very weak pollution legislation, called the attention of Chinese companies such as Tsingshan Holding Group, which controls the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), where the explosion occurred in which around twenty workers died in 2023. “IMIP has created an immense amount of jobs, with more than 100 thousand employees and contractors, and alone represents a significant percentage of Indonesia's nickel exports for batteries,” point out Campbell and Lee. According to BloombergNEF estimates, it is believed that by 2030 , Indonesia could account for almost two-thirds of the world's nickel supply.