Report by Katerina Barton
Photography by Claire Harbage
Graphics by Connie Hanzhang Jin
Published May 7, 2026
Over the last decade Indonesia has built the world’s largest nickel industry, producing more than half of global supply. Much of that output still goes into stainless steel, but a growing share is now processed for batteries that power electric vehicles and data centers. The Indonesian government champions this expansion as part of a clean‑energy transition, yet mining and processing have produced significant environmental and social harm across mining regions.
Foreign firms, especially Chinese companies, dominate much of Indonesia’s refining capacity. The United States has recently sought access to Indonesian nickel as it tries to diversify away from Chinese supply chains. Most extraction and processing activity is concentrated on Sulawesi, where villages and coastlines have been transformed into mining zones and industrial parks.
Licensing surged: active nickel‑mining permits in Sulawesi rose from one in 2005 to a peak of 408 in 2022, with a modest decline in 2023 after government efforts to rein in oversupply and tighten regulation.
NPR teams visited six Sulawesi locations to document how the nickel boom is reshaping land, livelihoods and health. The results are mixed: mining has created jobs, infrastructure and some community benefits in places, but it has also caused pollution, lost incomes, conflict over land and rare but consequential victories for local resistance.
Labengki: mostly untouched
Labengki Island remains relatively unscathed. Its single village, home to about 500 people including many Bajau — an Indigenous sea‑oriented community — still relies on fishing and tourism. Waters around Labengki are comparatively clear and rich in coral and marine life, forming a stark contrast with nearby mined areas.
Boenaga: a stark contrast
On the nearby mainland, Boenaga, a Bajau village, sits amid open pits, denuded hills and red exposed soil. Local officials say mining brought employment and occasional company payments for utilities or stipends. Fishermen and other residents say those benefits are thin comfort: they now travel farther for fish, spend more on fuel and often feel unable to complain because their families depend on company wages.
Local conservationist Habib Nadjar Buduha has documented growing turbidity and sediment in the channel between Boenaga and Labengki. Sediment from mines turns water murky for miles, smothering coral and other species. Giant clams and other filter feeders have declined; when sediment settles on gills they can suffocate or accumulate toxic metals.
Indonesia Pomalaa Industrial Park (IPIP): new processing, lost land
The Indonesia Pomalaa Industrial Park is promoted as a future hub for battery materials. Investors include Huaxing Nickel Indonesia and Rimau New World; a processing plant inside IPIP counts Huayou Indonesia, Vale Indonesia and Ford Motor Co. among investors. Company comment to reporters was limited; Ford said it is committed to respecting human rights and protecting the environment.
Near IPIP, farmers say land was cleared with inadequate consultation and compensation. Some had cashew trees cut down to make way for roads and felt paid below market rates; others sold land and found new jobs, while many lost steady income and now struggle to afford basic food. Construction runoff from the park carries sediment into coastal waters, raising concerns about damage to fisheries and reefs people depend on.
Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP): mining as a way of life
Built from 2013, the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park is the country’s largest nickel complex, sprawling across roughly 10,000 acres in Bahodopi. The site includes worker housing, markets and services, but coal‑fired power plants supply much of its electricity. A persistent smog blankets the area and residents report worsening air quality.
Public health data show sharp rises in respiratory illness. Acute respiratory tract infections recorded at the Bahodopi community health center climbed significantly, and the regency’s only hospital logged 812 respiratory cases in 2020 versus 3,228 in 2025. The hospital’s only pulmonologist estimates that 70–80% of his respiratory patients come from Bahodopi. Residents describe chest pain, shortness of breath and frequent sickness attributed by clinicians to air pollution.
IMIP also has a troubling workplace safety record. A federation of mining and energy unions reports IMIP has the highest number of industry workplace accidents among Indonesia’s nickel sites, with more than 40 fatalities since 2016. Workers and union representatives accuse investors of prioritizing production over safety and worker welfare.
Many long‑established residents say they have not shared in the new wealth; local fishing and subsistence activities have declined, and new housing and services serve incoming workers more than original communities.
Morosi: seeking accountability
In Tani Indah, villagers have accused a coal‑fired power plant in the Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry Park, operated by Chinese‑owned Obsidian Stainless Steel, of polluting land and water. Thousands of shrimp and fish died on some farms, villagers say. Local groups have filed lawsuits alleging environmental harm and health violations; companies say they comply with regulations. The disputes continue, highlighting gaps in enforcement and government oversight.
Wawonii: a rare legal victory
Wawonii island shows the limits and possibilities of local resistance. After years of protests, arrests and clashes over a 2017 mining project by Gema Kreasi Perdana, villagers won a Supreme Court ruling in 2024 and the mine closed in 2025. Fisheries and rivers have begun to recover and farmers have returned to some land, but residents worry about new actors and the long road to ecological recovery.
Tradeoffs and unanswered questions
Across Sulawesi, nickel mining has delivered jobs, roads and capital that some locals welcome. At the same time it has driven deforestation, increased sediment and heavy‑metal pollution, undermined fisheries and agriculture, worsened air quality, strained health services and raised worker safety concerns. Much of the processing value is captured by foreign firms, and disputes over land, compensation and enforcement are common.
Conservationists, community leaders and legal advocates urge stricter regulation, transparent land acquisition, better environmental monitoring and meaningful community consent. Some call for development that balances industrial growth with protection of marine and terrestrial ecosystems; others demand stronger accountability from companies and more active government oversight.
As one Wawonii villager put it after the mine closure, ‘You can see the destruction they brought by just one company. What will happen next? Where will our grandchildren go if this island is destroyed?’
Indonesia’s nickel boom has remade Sulawesi’s landscapes and economies. Whether the country can supply materials for a global green‑energy transition while protecting communities and ecosystems remains an urgent and unresolved challenge.