BACA LAPORAN INI DALAM BAHASA INDONESIA / READ THIS REPORT IN INDONESIAN
The report Filtered Tailings in Indonesia: The Catastrophic Failure of a Disruptive Technology reveals the health, safety, and environmental risks associated with Indonesia’s booming nickel industry. Regulatory safeguards have failed to keep pace with the rapid scale-up and new waste management technologies. The result is worker deaths, unsafe conditions for communities, halts in production, and water pollution. Conditions are ripe for further catastrophic infrastructure failures.
The report is endorsed by WALHI Southeast Sulawesi, WALHI South Sulawesi, WALHI North Maluku, Yayasan Tanah Merdeka (YTM), PUSPAHAM, Satya Bumi, and Aksi Ekologi & Emansipasi Rakyat (AEER).
Skyrocketing nickel extraction leads to huge amounts of toxic waste
The Indonesian mining industry is expanding rapidly to supply nickel for electric vehicle batteries. From 2015 to 2024, annual mine production of nickel in Indonesia rose from 5.7% to 59.5% of world mine production. This production creates a huge amount of waste.
Most of Indonesia’s increased nickel production comes from seven high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) facilities. HPAL uses high pressure, extreme heat and sulphuric acid to extract the metal. For every ton of nickel, HPAL processing makes about 133 tons of waste, also called tailings. The sulfuric acid from HPAL makes the tailings highly corrosive, toxic, and difficult to manage.
Technical analysis reveals unsafe mine waste storage facilities
The report shows that Indonesian tailings dams are built taller and contain more waste than they can safely hold, putting them at risk of collapse. It also found that inconsistent moisture levels in the tailings themselves could make these facilities highly unstable. Frequent earthquakes and heavy rains increase the risk.
Communities and workers are in danger
Collapses can be dangerous and deadly to workers and nearby residents. For example, in the event of a dam collapse on Obi Island, the tailings would most likely flow into a nearby river and from there to the Molucca Sea, threatening the safety of mineworkers, residents of the coastal village of Kawasi, and the health of the ocean, which communities rely on for fishing. The report calls for immediate measures to protect those downstream. The report also finds evidence that seepage from the Obi Island tailings facility contaminated groundwater with boron, chromium-6 and nickel.
Alternate methods of waste disposal are not safe
Some methods of tailings disposal, including building large dams to hold conventionally stored waste or cutting down huge amounts of forest to spread the waste more thinly, would also have significant negative impact on communities and the environment. Some Indonesian mines dump waste into the ocean or a river, which also has severe consequences for people and aquatic environments. The government committed to no longer issue new permits for ocean dumping.
Reducing the amount of water in tailings can reduce their risk. Filtered tailings, in which some of the water is taken out, can be a safer method of storing mine waste in some places, but in countries like Indonesia that experience heavy rains and earthquakes, the method presents significant risks.
Immediate action is needed to protect communities, workers, and the environment
The report calls for a moratorium on adding more tailings to existing filtered tailings facilities, and on permits for new facilities, until the Indonesian government establishes improved safety guidelines. These guidelines should meet the standard set by Safety First: Guidelines for Responsible Mine Tailings Management. Independent safety inspections should be carried out at all tailings facilities in order to re-open.
Companies should actively engage all communities and workers who are at risk to co-design emergency management and response plans that keep people safe while also respecting residents’ rights to choose to stay in their homes and on their land.
The report also contains specific recommendations for mining companies, automakers and downstream buyers, and investors in Indonesian HPAL nickel projects.
Additional reading
‣ New Report Details High Risk of Indonesia’s Nickel Boom – Press release
‣ New Report: Indonesia’s Nickel Boom Puts People in Harm’s Way – Blog from Mining Program Director Ellen Moore.
‣ Replies to the report from BMW, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group, and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd. Copies of this report were also provided to Harita Nickel/Trimegah Bangum Persada, GEM Co. Ltd., SRK Consulting, Hatch Consulting, PT Lapi ITB, Ford, Honda, Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen for comment, but no reply was received.