The Indonesian government has revoked the licenses of four nickel mining companies operating in the Raja Ampat archipelago in the east of the country, citing multiple “environmental violations.”
According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Bahlil Lahadalia, the country’s minister of energy and mineral resources, told a press conference yesterday that President Prabowo Subianto had decided to revoke the mining permits in an attempt to prevent further damage to the ecologically sensitive islands.
“These areas must be protected by paying attention to marine life and conservation,” he said. “The President has a special concern to ensure Raja Ampat remains a world-class tourist attraction and protect its sustainability.”
The four privately owned companies – PT Kawei Sejahtera Mining, PT Mulia Raymond Perkasa, PT Anugerah Surya Pratama, and PT Nurham – were operating in Raja Ampat, a scattering of islands in Southwest Papua province that is a UNESCO-designated Global Geopark. Raja Ampat, which literally means “four kings,” is “globally renowned for its marine biodiversity, home to about 75 percent of the world’s known coral species,” according to the environmental publication Mongabay.
The revocation of the licenses has left just one mining operator – Gag Nikel, a subsidiary of state-owned Aneka Tambang – operating in Raja Ampat. Bahlil said that the company’s license was not revoked as it was operating outside of the designated geopark.
The suspension comes after Greenpeace Indonesia published a video investigation in early May showing the effects of nickel mining projects on three islands in Raja Ampat: Gag, Kawe, and Manuran. The video then gained widespread attention when activists from the organization crashed a critical minerals conference in Jakarta on June 3, hoisting a sign that read, “Nickel Mines Destroy Lives.”
In a subsequent statement, Greenpeace said that nickel exploitation on Gag, Kawe, and Manuran islands had “already led to the destruction of over 500 hectares of forest and specialized native vegetation.” Its researchers also claimed that deforestation and excavation had created soil runoff that had caused “turbidity and sedimentation in coastal waters – a direct threat to Raja Ampat’s delicate coral reefs and marine ecosystems.” Many Indonesian social media users subsequently shared videos and images showing the damage of mining operations in Raja Ampat, along with the hashtag #SaveRajaAmpat.
The outcry highlighted the costs of the Indonesian government’s push to establish itself as a global nickel powerhouse. Indonesia possesses the world’s largest reserves of nickel ore, which successive governments have attempted to leverage in order to turn the country into a global hub of electric vehicle manufacturing. (Nickel is an important component in the manufacture of the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs.)
Environmentalists and other critics argue that the rapid development of the nickel industry has driven deforestation and pollution on islands across the Indonesian archipelago. In a 2024 report on the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) in the Maluku region, one of the country’s largest nickel processing hubs, the advocacy group Climate Rights International (CRI) noted that nickel mining and smelting operations have been developed at such a rapid pace that social and environmental safeguards have been either overlooked or ignored. In the case of IWIP, CRI reported that the construction of the industrial park has involved the removal of more than 5,300 hectares of tropical forest within the park’s concession since 2018. It argued that the IWIP had also “devastated the lives of many Indigenous Peoples and other rural community members” living in the vicinity of the industrial park.
In a follow-up report last week, CRI claimed that “the Indonesian government, nickel companies, and electric vehicle companies have failed to respond meaningfully to serious and well-documented human rights and environmental abuses.”
In a statement yesterday, Kiki Taufik, the global head of Greenpeace Indonesia’s Forest Campaign, described the cancelation of the four mining permits as “a glimmer of good news and an important first step towards full and permanent protection for all of Raja Ampat from the nickel industry.”
However, he said that in the past, mining licenses had been reinstated after court action by the mining companies in question, and that Greenpeace would “continue to demand full and permanent protection for all of Raja Ampat, including cancellation of all mining licenses, both active and non-active.”
For several years, Indonesia’s government has promised to tighten environmental and social safeguards in the nickel industry. This has been motivated at least partly by the desire to court investors from the U.S. and Europe, which have balked at the slipshod environmental standards of many Indonesia-based nickel mining and processing operations.
In any event, Indonesia is now producing so much nickel that it has crashed the global price for the mineral, undermining the interests of domestic mining operators. Opening up additional supply that further gluts the global market could well be counterproductive. The government likely feels that it can afford to heed public opinion and cancel new nickel mining operations without affecting its model of nickel-based industrialization. Whether the revocation of the four mining licenses in Raja Ampat is a sign of a deeper responsiveness to environmental concerns will no doubt become clear in the months and years to come.