Equipment torched as worker protest paralyzes Indonesia nickel plant

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PT. Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (VDNI) plant in Konawe – Morosi, Central Sulawesi is pictured in this handout photo. (Courtesy of PT vdni/-)



Violent protests by hundreds of workers at one of Indonesia’s biggest nickel smelters on Sulawesi island operated by PT Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (PT VDNI) had “paralyzed” its activities, the China-backed company said in a statement.


SINGAPORE/ JAKARTA (Reuters) - Violent protests by hundreds of workers at one of Indonesia’s biggest nickel smelters on Sulawesi island operated by PT Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry (PT VDNI) had “paralysed” its activities, the China-backed company said in a statement.

The protest, which saw 800 workers calling for higher salaries and permanent employment for contractors, turned violent on Monday, as workers torched vehicles and buildings.

“The rioting resulted in company activities being paralysed because the factory supporting equipment was badly damaged and about 40 heavy equipment and operational vehicles belonging to the company caught fire,” PT VDNI, a unit of China’s Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry, said in a statement late on Tuesday.

PT VDNI could not immediately be reached for further comment on Wednesday.

The billion-dollar nickel refining facility, located in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, started operations last February with an input capacity of 800,000 tonnes of ore to produce nickel pig iron with 10%-12% nickel content.

There were no casualties in the protest and five protesters had been arrested, Ferry Walintukan, a Southeast Sulawesi police spokesman, said.

Shanghai Futures Exchange nickel prices slipped from a 14-month high of 134,180 yuan a tonne hit earlier in the session, partly fuelled by supply worries caused by the unrest at the plant, to fall 1.4% to 129,370 yuan a tonne at Wednesday’s close.

Indonesia was the largest nickel ore exporter until it stopped exports in January as it tries to woo foreign investment to build its nickel processing industry.

“Currently, the government is working hard to bring investment into Indonesia that can provide jobs and business for the community,” ministry of industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said in a statement late on Tuesday on the protest.

“The government asks all parties... not to make things worse, in order to maintain a cool investment climate in Konawe Regency,” Agus said.

Indonesia wants to expand as a nickel processing hub, starting from steel, to extracting battery grade chemicals from the ore, and eventually producing batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and building EVs.

SOURCE: REUTERS

 

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Two separate articles from same source.


Major Arctic polluter will shut down harmful smelting works on Christmas Day



"The closure of Nikel’s smelters is part of that process, which has high stakes for the company. Norilsk Nickel produces metals vital to the production of batteries for electric cars, but many carmakers, like Tesla and Volvo, refuse to buy products produced by unrepentant polluters."



An industrial facility in Russia long responsible for harmful pollution will shut down on Christmas Day, a move cheered by Bellona, which has long sought to staunch emissions fouling the northern reaches of Norway and endangering health on both sides of the border.

Inside the smelting works in the industrial city of Nikel. Credit: Courtesy of Vladimir Voronov

The closures will affect three nickel smelting furnaces in the Russian-Norwegian border town of Nikel, an industrial settlement of about 11,000. The smelters are part of the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company – a subsidiary of the giant Norilsk Nickel – and they have long drawn the ire of Norwegian and Russian environmentalists for their excessive output of toxic sulfur dioxide.

“The closing of the plant is a Christmas present to nature,” says Simon Kalmykov, an energy advisor with Bellona’s Murmansk offices. “This means a large cut in the emission of sulfur dioxide and heavy metals near the Russian-Norwegian border, and less pressure on nature and people’s health in the area.”

According to statistics from the company, the smelters emit some 70,000 tons of sulfur dioxide on a regional level per year. The November closure of the first of the three smelters located in Nikel will reduce emissions of the harmful respiratory irritant by some 33 percent, or 24,000 tons.

For more than half a century, emissions from the plant have embittered relations between Russia and its neighbors in Scandinavia, and company representatives have long promised to reduce its sulfur dioxide output, often with mixed results.

In recent years, however, Norilsk Nickel has embarked on a highly vocal multi-billion dollar effort to rewrite its history as a major Russian polluter, vowing to revamp its production facilities and stem how much sulfur dioxide spills into the atmosphere.

The closure of Nikel’s smelters is part of that process, which has high stakes for the company. Norilsk Nickel produces metals vital to the production of batteries for electric cars, but many carmakers, like Tesla and Volvo, refuse to buy products produced by unrepentant polluters.

But the closures will impact a community that is formed almost entirely around work at the plants. Anna Krygina, who head the human resources department for the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company, told the company televisions station that some 800 workers will either be reassigned to other duties within the plant’s sprawling network or encouraged to take early retirement.

Since October, the company has been surveying employees in the smelter workshop to determine their needs and develop support measures to each of them based on their individual situations, Kn51, Norilsk Nickel’s company newspaper, reported.

The company also runs mines, enrichment facilities and a pellet production plant in Zapolyarny, as well as smelters in Monchegorsk. The nickel smelting work performed within Nikel will be transferred to Norilsk, 2,000 kilometers to the east, where the parent company Norislk Nickel is located.

Kalmykov says Bellona is anxious to work toward creating green jobs for the workers left behind by the closures. But Bellona is concerned that moving smelting operations farther from the Norwegian border might mean that future emissions receive less environmental attention. To this end, Kalmykov added, Bellona pledges to hold dialogues with the company about developing sustainable production methods.

Cleaning up after years of toxic smelting, however, will pose challenges, Kalmykov says. According to company plans, the Nikel smelting facilities, which date back to World War II, will be demolished by 2025. Thereafter, the company will work to reclaim the land where it stood by 2027.



Consumers demand transparency on the origin of heavy metals used in batteries



"Earlier last year, Nornickel announced a partnership with Germany’s battery producer BASF. But many prime electric vehicle producers, Tesla and Volvo among them, have long said they won’t buy materials for their green cars from companies that are trashing the environment."


Bellona believes Norway should be pushing to establish an international system for tracking materials used in batteries. Nickel, which is produced in large amounts at highly polluting plants close to the Norwegian border with Russia, remains an important component in many batteries.

“There are many environmental sinners among these who manufacture battery materials used in electric vehicles. These sinners must be exposed” says Bellona’s advisor on Russian affairs, Oskar Njaa.

He is the author behind Bellona’s recently published report about Nornickel and the Kola Peninsula, which has been a huge concern for both environmentalists and the general public for decades.

Great promises

Bellona’s demands come in connection with recent promises from the Russian company Nornickel, which has promised to reduce production and emissions from the plants at the Norwegian border by 90% within 2023.

Nornickel has repeatedly broken promises to cut emissions from the highly polluting plants . This time, Bellona hopes that the promises will be followed up. Not least because of increased market demand for greener electric vehicle production.

Earlier last year, Nornickel announced a partnership with Germany’s battery producer BASF. But many prime electric vehicle producers, Tesla and Volvo among them, have long said they won’t buy materials for their green cars from companies that are trashing the environment.

Lack of traceability

Nickel, which is produced in large quantities at the Norwegian-Russian border, remains an important component in many batteries.

“For consumers, it’s becoming increasingly important to buy environmentally friendly vehicles, so it’s important for electric vehicle manufacturers to choose cleaner materials for their batteries,” says Oskar Njaa.

In order to make the materials traceable, Bellona believes that Norway should work to establish an international framework.

“It may start with labeling in the first place, to make products traceable back to the manufacturer. This can again be followed up with a more specific form of evaluation of different manufacturers, as well as eco-labelling of raw materials and the products containing the material” says Njaa.

Nornickel at the Norwegian-Russian border Credit: Thomas Nilsen


Possibility to choose

As the environmental requirements for different products increase, this will have an impact on the standards required throughout the production chain.

“Traceability will make it possible to select the manufacturers that do the most to avoid negative effects of production, and will lead to a clear financial incentive to invest in technology development and environmental protection solutions. It requires, however, transparency that does not exist today”, concludes Njaa.

Background:

The mining industry at the Kola Peninsula has for decades been one of the most polluting industries in the Arctic. Sulfur dioxide and heavy metals are released into the air and pollute groundwater and water streams in the area. These high pollution levels have also led to major protests in Norway, where polluted air gets blown in from the Russian side of the border. One of the most famous action groups was “Stop the Soviet Death Shadows”, which was launched in 1990.

By 2015, the two plants closest to the Norwegian-Russian border had a sulfur dioxide emission of 80,000 tonnes, corresponding to almost five times as much as Norway’s total emissions that same year.


SOURCE: Bellona.org