Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel ore supplier, plays a crucial role in the global nickel market. As countries race to find solutions to phase out fossil fuels and transition to cleaner energy, nickel is increasingly sought after as a crucial component in creating renewable energy technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Indonesia, for its part, seeks to leverage the growing nickel demand to position itself at the center of the global energy transition movement. Indonesia’s efforts to achieve this by building its downstream nickel industry has attracted significant foreign investment, particularly from China, whose role in Indonesia’s nickel industry is complex, deep-seated, and evolving.
The CGSP Nickel Tracker is an interactive map that details nickel development across Indonesia, covering mining, processing, and battery production projects. This map includes projects that involve both domestic and international stakeholders, offering a unique and comprehensive look into an industry where data is often scarce and closely guarded by the government.
We have made the data collected for this map publicly available under a Creative Commons license. It can be used, quoted, translated, and/or republished by anyone, including fellow research and media institutions. Designed to enhance transparency, we hope that this map serves as a resource for researchers, policy practitioners, and anyone interested in understanding the scope and impact of the nickel industry in Indonesia.
The map is divided into three parts:
- Interactive Map
- Project List
- Stories
The Interactive Map
The China-Global South Project (CGSP) undertook its Indonesia Nickel Tracking Project to enhance transparency in Indonesia’s nickel sector and better understand the presence and impact of China and other foreign actors in this space.
Over the course of this project, CGSP researchers have collected data on the mining and processing of nickel in Indonesia to produce an interactive map of the Indonesian nickel industry. The map includes data on the identities of mining and processing operations, types of operations, their locations, status, ownership information, investment sizes, social and ecological impact, and reports of corruption and illegal mining activities. We also identified the planned and operating integrated industrial areas focusing on nickel commodities.
Research Methodology
The Indonesian nickel industry is notoriously opaque and difficult to obtain reliable information about. When we began compiling this data, we reached out to three Indonesian government ministries that oversee nickel development in the country: the Ministry of Industry, the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime & Investment Affairs, and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. We were unable to reach them and repeatedly ran into issues regarding lack of transparency and secrecy in government dealings.
Recognizing that we would not be able to access any data through direct dealings with the Indonesian government, we started approaching civil society organizations and research institutions for their data on Indonesian mining processes. After compiling data from over a dozen organizations, we supplemented the data with our own research using sources available to the public. CGSP cannot share the identities of our sources for security reasons. Our researchers also referenced hundreds of stories from news outlets and publicly posted government documents.
We found that the shareholding structure was more complex and ambiguous than we anticipated. Our research also indicated that the ecological consequences of these nickel projects were widespread, as was corruption involving local governments. There were also clear linkages between these issues: where corruption was present, one could almost certainly expect reports of ecological damage and conflict with local communities.
Nearly 30% of all nickel mining and processing operations in CGSP’s database have been involved in or accused of corruption and illegal mining activities. Over 90% of these corruption cases occur in the mining sector, which is largely controlled by Indonesian firms.
CGSP has developed a report brief, Indonesia’s China-backed Nickel-to-Battery Ambition, to serve as a companion piece to this map. While the map provides detailed, up-to-date data on Indonesia’s nickel industry, the report brief offers the broader context needed to understand that data. It traces the industry’s evolution, examines China’s involvement, and analyzes the impacts of Indonesia’s nickel policies over the past two decades. Together, the map and the report form a comprehensive resource for anyone seeking to grasp the complexities and implications of nickel production in Indonesia.
How to Use the Interactive Map
The map lists three broad categories of projects:
- Mining & Ore Resources: Projects that are focused on extracting the ore from mines.
- Processing: Projects that process the nickel ore into nickel products for various applications.
- Battery & Recycling: Projects that process nickel products further into batteries or even have the capabilities of recycling batteries.
We chose these three categories by researching the types of permits operating companies hold and following the lead of other research institutions that have also sorted projects into these three categories.
On the map, these three categories are represented by different icons and colors. In heavily concentrated project areas, the map shows a number, which indicates how many projects are active in the mapped area, and a color split in the outline of the circle, which indicates split of the different types of projects. For example, a mapped area with 21 active projects might show a circle that is largely brown, with a smaller blue part of the ring. This can be read to mean that of the 21 active projects in the area, a majority of them are mining & ore extraction projects, and minority are processing projects.
Clicking on the dots will show a pop-up of the top-level details of the project, including project status, type, investment size, and impact. Hitting “see details” on the pop-up will create a larger pop-up screen that includes the full details of the project.
The map can be filtered based on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impact, project type, status, shareholder nationality, and investment size.
On the left side of the map, there is a screen that shows “Nationality of Shareholders” and “Integrated Industrial Areas.” Many of the projects have multiple shareholders from different countries. If the screen is set to show shareholder nationality, the user can click on any country to view a pop-up screen that shows all projects associated with that country. The pop-up screen can be viewed by project or by investor.
Integrated industrial areas (IIA) are specially designated zones where different stages of the nickel value chain are concentrated and integrated. They typically include mining operations, smelting and refining facilities, and can even produce finished products like stainless steel or battery components. The left-side screen can be set to view all IIAs in the country. The IIAs will also be shown on the interactive map. Clicking on the name or location dot for any IIA will open a pop-up screen that shows more detailed information about the IIA, including investment size, status, and related news articles.
Project List
The CGSP Indonesia Nickel Tracker can also be viewed in a project list format. This page lists all projects and their accompanying data. Users can click on projects to open a pop-up screen that shows more information about the project. There is a search bar that can be used to search for project name. Projects can also be filtered by project type, social impact, and ecological impact. These impacts were collected by our team through data collection via news articles, local interviews, and reporting by civil society and research institutions.
In the project list, you will be able to access the following information about each project:
- Project name
- Project type
- Investment size
- Nationality of operator/shareholders
- Shareholder name
- Operating status
- Coordinates
- City and province location
- Production capacity
- ESG key impacts
Relevant news articles/media mentions
The list also includes integrated industrial areas. In two large boxes at the top of the page, CGSP keeps count of the total number of projects and the total investment. These figures will update as we update the tracker over time.
The CGSP Indonesia Nickel Tracker is an ongoing project. We will be updating the map quarterly to ensure that all data is current.
Stories
To accompany the interactive map, CGSP is developing a “content bouquet” on the topic. Using the Nickel Tracker as the centerpiece, CGSP will provide ongoing analysis of Indonesia’s nickel mining, processing, and battery sectors.
The first tier of the content bouquet will consist of analysis of the map itself and what this data reveals about Indonesia’s nickel industry trends. The second tier includes stories from local communities on how these projects affect them. The third tier will focus on analysis of these projects in the context of Indonesia’s place on the world stage, the renewable energy and EV industry, and the Indonesian nickel industry’s broader geopolitical implications — “connecting the dots” of why this matters. Throughout the project, we’ll also produce work that reports on any new projects and updates or controversies around existing projects.
The stories we have published so far cover topics such as:
- Water, air, and soil pollution as a result of nickel projects
- Human rights violations
- China’s role in Indonesia’s nickel industry
- The connection between the nickel industry and domestic politics
- Living conditions of nickel workers
- Chinese electric vehicle presence in Indonesia and Southeast Asia
- International trade
To learn more about Indonesia’s nickel industry and the role of foreign investors, we suggest you read our report brief, which is designed to accompany this interactive map.
Disclaimers
The information on the dashboard is for informational and non-commercial purposes. Neither The China-Global South Project nor its partners can be held liable for any decision made or action taken relying on this website’s information. Information on the dashboard is subject to change at any time and without warning.
Because this data was collected and compiled from various sources such as civil society organizations, research institutions, and publicly available news reports, the results should be estimates rather than absolute values.For more information about this interactive map and dataset, please contact CGSP Editor-in-Chief Eric Olander: eric@chinaglobalsouth.com.
Copyright 2023 The China Africa Project. All Rights Reserved.