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Nickel Laterites

Indonesia, home to the world’s largest nickel reserves, struggles to achieve its EV dreams – by Michelle Anindya (Rest of World.org – February 3, 2025)

https://restofworld.org/

China’s growing involvement and the rapid shift to lithium batteries dissuade investors.

Karawang county, located about 90 minutes by road from Jakarta, has been a major automotive hub in Indonesia for decades, housing factories of companies like Yamaha and Toyota. Last July, the industrial area added another feather to its cap when Southeast Asia’s first electric vehicle battery factory was unveiled there.

Established as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor, LG Energy, and the state-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation, the factory has the annual capacity to make battery cells sufficient to power 150,000 EVs. The factory marked a key step in Indonesia’s ambition to become a hub of EV manufacturing in the region, and one of the world leaders in EV battery production by 2027.

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Experts and advocates warn of nickel mining’s risk to precious marine region of Indonesia – by Victoria Milko (Associated Press – January 31, 2025)

https://apnews.com/

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — One of Earth’s most biodiverse marine regions is threatened by the expansion of nickel mining projects in Indonesia, according to a new report.

Satellite analysis and on-the-ground visits found a rapid increase in land given over to mining pits in Raja Ampat Regency, a group of tropical islands near West Papua, according to the report from Auriga Nusantara, an environmental and conservation organization in Indonesia.

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Trump’s EV Policy Reversal Threatens Indonesia’s Nickel Industry and Green Energy Transition (Jakarta Globe – January 28, 2025)

https://jakartaglobe.id/

Jakarta. A recent executive order by US President Donald Trump rolling back electric vehicle (EV) mandates is likely to disrupt Indonesia’s burgeoning EV ecosystem, according to the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios). The policy could significantly impact demand for critical minerals, foreign investment, and global financing for green energy projects, while strengthening China’s grip on Indonesia’s nickel downstream industry.

Bhima Yudhistira, Executive Director of Celios, said reduced global demand for EV batteries could pressure prices for commodities such as nickel, copper, and bauxite—key components in EV manufacturing.

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Column: Only Indonesia can help nickel recover from price bust – by Andy Home (Reuters – January 22, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Nickel ended 2024 trading at four-year lows, a spectacular reversal of fortune for a metal that soared so high in 2022 it almost broke the London Metal Exchange (LME). There is no mystery to this dramatic tale of boom and bust.

Indonesia has flooded the world with more metal than it can absorb, crushing the price and leaving a trail of casualties among the rest of the world’s producers. The market’s fortunes this year depend on whether Jakarta can tame the excesses of its nickel sector and align supply more closely with demand.

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Two bids made for Glencore stake in New Caledonia’s Koniambo Nickel (Reuters – January 8, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Two potential buyers for Glencore’s stake in mothballed New Caledonian nickel producer Koniambo Nickel SAS (KNS) have submitted offers following site visits late last year, KNS said.

Part of a loss-making nickel industry in French-controlled New Caledonia, KNS halted its operations in March after commodity group Glencore decided to sell its 49% interest.

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WA’s nickel industry has collapsed but multi-billion-dollar projects still in development with eye on future – by Jarrod Lucas and Tara de Landgrafft (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – December 1, 2024)

https://www.abc.net.au/

Is Western Australia’s once-booming nickel industry dead or just a sleeping giant? Thousands of job losses this year marked the bleakest period in the local industry’s history, which dates back to the 1960s.

In those days, the discovery of nickel literally put the Goldfields town of Kambalda on the map, leading to the development of the country’s first nickel mine while the Vietnam War drove demand for this key ingredient of stainless steel.

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The Weekend Essay: [New Caledonia] The Island Where Environmentalism Implodes – by Ben Crair (The New Yorker – November 23, 2024)

https://www.newyorker.com/

New Caledonia is home to thousands of species found nowhere else—and to nickel that companies like Tesla

This story was produced with support from the Rainforest Journalism Fund in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

In September, 2020, Elon Musk and a Tesla executive named Drew Baglino put on matching T-shirts and took the stage in a California parking lot. To mark what the company called Battery Day, Tesla had gathered an audience of shareholders, who were social distancing by sitting separately in gleaming electric cars.

Some of the company’s new batteries, Musk and Baglino announced, contained far more nickel than previous models; as a result, they could travel farther, and at far less cost, on a single charge. “Increasing nickel is a goal of ours and, really, everybody’s in the battery industry,” Baglino said.

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Indonesia Curbing Nickel Supply to Support Locals, Eramet Says – by Eddie Spence (Bloomberg News – November 21, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Indonesia is squeezing supplies of nickel ore to protect smaller local miners as the market for the battery metal endures a prolonged slump, according to Eramet SA.

The French miner, which operates the world’s largest nickel mine in Indonesia’s North Maluku province, was this year given a sales quota by the Asian nation that was 29% less than it expected, causing its share price to plunge in October.

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Prony Resources gears up for nickel production restart at Goro mine (Mining Technology – November 19, 2024)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The Goro mine in southern New Caledonia produces 57,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of nickel and 5,000tpa of cobalt.

Nickel miner Prony Resources New Caledonia will recommence operations at its Goro mine and battery-grade nickel production plant, located in the south of New Caledonia, after a six-month suspension caused by local riots in the French territory, reported Bloomberg.

The return of the workforce marks a significant step for Prony Resources, one of the three major nickel producers in New Caledonia.

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Indonesia’s Small Islands Pay the Price for Nickel Mining – by Firdaus Cahyadi (China Global South Project – November 11, 2024)

https://chinaglobalsouth.com/

The push for electric vehicles (EVs) promises a cleaner future, but the production of their batteries comes at a steep cost to Indonesia’s small islands. Nickel, a critical component in many EV batteries, has spurred mining activities that devastate local ecosystems and communities.

Nickel batteries—particularly Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM)—dominate the EV market, accounting for 60% of market share, according to the Global EV Outlook 2023. While alternatives like Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LFP) are gaining traction, the demand for nickel remains robust. In July 2024, global EV sales increased by 21% compared to the previous year, with Chinese-made vehicles leading at 800,000 units sold.

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The future is nickel in Indonesia – by Joseph Rachman (Asia Times – October 9, 2024)

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Indonesia’s nickel policy point man outlines the nation’s EV vision, tackles China issues and debunks critics in exclusive AT interview

Indonesia’s nickel industry is booming. The global adoption of electric vehicles (EV) is driving demand for the metal, which is a key element in many EV batteries. In 2023, Indonesia produced a massive 40.2% of the world’s supply, sparking hopes the country can leverage its nickel reserves as a base to build a domestic EV industry.

At the same time, the nickel boom has courted controversy. In September, the US Department of Labor reported that forced labor was being used in the Indonesian nickel industry. Nickel companies have also faced accusations of environmental destruction and pollution.

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Beijing’s nickel glut leaves America penniless – by Oliver McPherson-Smith (The Hill – October 2, 2024)

https://thehill.com/

Oliver McPherson-Smith, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Energy & Environment at the America First Policy Institute.

America’s vast mineral wealth has underwritten our nation’s evolution into an economic and military superpower. From the gold rush that fueled the race westward almost 200 years ago to the iron ore and coal miners that powered the construction of bridges, skyscrapers, rail lines and military vessels, mining has been central to American prosperity.

Sadly, America’s commitment to mining its resources has fallen victim to progressive dogma. Now, Beijing’s vast influence over global mineral supply chains poses an economic threat to the United States. While the Biden-Harris administration is hamstringing American mining projects in red tape, Chinese miners are preemptively flooding the global market to keep American minerals in the ground.

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The promise and pitfalls of Indonesia’s nickel boom – by James Griffiths (Globe and Mail – September 28, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Indonesia already accounts for 55 per cent of the world’s nickel production, and that output is only expected to grow. But locals fear losing precious farmland over a commodity that might soon lose its lustre

Atop a hill overlooking Loeha Raya, a cluster of villages on the shores of Lake Towuti, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, all that can be seen is green. For kilometres around, the hills are covered in leafy pepper plants, roughly two metres high, growing in neat rows reminiscent of a vineyard, their tiny fruit slowly ripening and turning red, at which point thousands of workers will harvest them, laying the peppercorns out to dry in the hot Southeast Asian sun.

Down at the lakeside, where lumbering ferries dock from the town of Sorowako, across the water, the idyllic calm of the pepper fields is nowhere to be found, however. Large posters greet arrivals with angry slogans: “Reject mining,” “Save our village” and “Defend agricultural land!”

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Indonesia ‘blood nickel’ risks too grave to ignore – by Gabriel Collins, Morgan Bazilian and Simon Lomax (Asia Times – September 21, 2024)

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Manufacturers and investors should beware the reputational and operational risks of dealing in Indonesian nickel

Earlier this month, the US government sounded the alarm over the use of forced labor in the nickel mines of Indonesia.

The finding has major implications for the energy transition because large amounts of nickel are needed to produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries and other low-carbon energy technologies.

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US Forced Labor Ruling on Indonesian Nickel Could Backfire – by Cullen Hendrix (The Diplomat – September 23, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

The Department of Labor’s recent forced labor determination could push Jakarta into further dependence on China and Chinese firms.

On September 10, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) added Indonesian nickel to its list of goods produced by child or forced labor. Nickel is a critical mineral with applications in steelmaking, aircraft engines and turbines, and perhaps most prominently in renewable energy and vehicles, where it is one of the key components of nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion batteries.

This listing highlights the dominance of Indonesia’s nickel sector by Chinese firms and deals yet another blow to the country’s aspirations to secure a critical minerals-specific free trade agreement (CMS-FTA) with the United States.

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