GEBE ISLAND, Indonesia — Abdul Manan Magtiblo watched the excavator dump a piece of Gebe Island into the back of a truck. Barely a thicket remained on the buzz-cut upland above Umera village as the vehicle drove off to the nearby port. “That’s the PT Bartra Putra Mulia [BPM] nickel mine,” Manan, the village chief, […]

Indonesia holds the world’s largest reserves of nickel, conferring strategic importance on the world’s fourth-most-populous country as a supplier of raw materials for the batteries required by the global energy transition.

The Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) is one of the world’s largest nickel processing facilities (the main concession in Weda district that feeds this smelting complex is the world’s single largest nickel mine).