Indonesia’s massive metals build-out is felling the forest for batteries

LELILEF SAWAI, Indonesia (AP) — On a steep trek up to his forest farm on the Indonesian island of Halmahera, Librek Loha let out a cry of dismay. “Aduuuuh,” he said, his voice trailing off.

“Landslides, again. They happen all the time now.”

The mudslide below Loha’s plantings of cacao, nutmeg and pineapple have exposed more orange, rocky soil — adding to miles of bulldozed forest and river that are leaving the farm an island of green amid red-brown. Where trees once grew, there are dusty warehouses, mountains of black coal and water that runs silty brown.

This region of Weda Bay is now one of the world’s largest nickel production facilities. Fiery smelters and multiple coal-fired power plants burn nonstop to refine nickel ore into material for batteries and steel.

Indonesia aims to dominate the world’s nickel supply, and it’s succeeding. The country has gone from having two nickel smelters to 27 over the last 10 years, with 22 more planned, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. Last year, the country was responsible for more than half the supply of nickel ore globally. The metal was once known mainly for making stainless steel; now demand has skyrocketed as automakers like Tesla need it for electric vehicle batteries and companies that make larger batteries need it for clean electricity projects.

But where developers build out these vast nickel-processing plants, surrounding forest disappears twice as fast, according to a new analysis by the Indonesian nonprofit Auriga.

Indonesia has the largest reserves of nickel in the world. Until recently, it mostly sold its nickel deposits — ore — raw. It didn’t have the processing plants to refine the metal.

Then 10 years ago, Indonesian officials decided the country should