Companies operating in Indonesia's nickel-rich region must comply with the country's environmental regulations or risk having their licenses revoked, a senior cabinet minister warned Tuesday.
Indonesia plans to use its huge nickel reserves to become a regional manufacturing hub for electric car batteries, signing more than a dozen deals worth $15 billion in just three years with global manufacturers such as Hyundai, LG and Foxconn.
But environmentalists warn against pursuing those ambitions through rapacious mining and mineral processing, which they say will cause irreversible damage to the environment.
"You have to follow the rules set by the Indonesian government. If you can't, I will close your property in two months, "said Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan.
"Maybe it will reduce some of our income, but [we] don't want to make up for it with a bad environment," he told an economic forum in Jakarta.
Luhut pointed to Indonesia's largest nickel processing park, the Indonesian Morowali Industrial Park in central Sulawesi province. He said a government team had been sent there to investigate environmental and worker complaints filed last month.
He also warned that the government could take action against any company that did not comply.
