Mining Turned Indonesian Seas Red. The Drive for Greener Cars Could Herald a New Toxic Tide.

Business News/Analysis, Indonesia, Opinions, Policy, Sustainability

November 25, 2019

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by Ian Morse (Washington Post) Now, a growing appetite for electric vehicles is creating new demand for nickel, whose chemical derivatives are increasingly used in cathodes of lithium-ion batteries. But the push for clean energy is coming at an environmental cost to forests and fisheries in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

Sahman (Ukas) does not know how much more his fishing village can handle. In the decades of meeting nickel-for-steel demand, the seas have turned red, marine life has left past the horizon, and the exhaust of smelters has triggered respiratory problems.

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Down the road from Sahman’s village, the global market has placed what will probably become a main source for the vital nickel component in electric-vehicle batteries. The country’s largest nickel producer, Vale Indonesia, majority-owned by Brazil’s Vale, and Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining are in the final planning stages for a mining and smelting operation. Sumitomo plans to double production of battery materials in nine years, focusing on supplying Toyota and Panasonic, supplier of Tesla’s EV batteries.

Toyota said it was working to reduce the amount of metal in its products and the environmental burden. Sumitomo declined to discuss the mine and smelter. Panasonic, Tesla and Vale Indonesia did not respond to questions.

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The project is among 25 planned mine-smelter combinations to be opened by 2022 across the country, currently home to 11 smelters. Nickel mines may already number in the hundreds, if not thousands, according to the Mining Advocacy Network, an Indonesian nongovernmental organization known as Jatam.

Electric vehicles will require millions of tons of nickel derivatives in coming decades. Indonesia sees an opportunity that an official has described as potentially larger than its palm-oil industry, blamed for deforestation and forest fires.

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Only recently have studies shown that nickel content in the sea is 20 times the government’s limit for sustaining life, but Sahman can sense it. Part of his village is built on slag, the waste of nickel smelters. The danger of such waste to humans has been little researched, but it may contaminate waters with toxicants.

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“If you’re removing forest, you’ll need to restore a forest of equal ecological value after mining,” Mudd (Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer at Australia’s RMIT University) said. “There are a lot of promises, but I’ve yet to see good evidence that [companies] have been able to achieve it.”

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“The movement for electric vehicles is for zero emissions, but if you see it in the field, the reality is very different,” Arianto (Arianto Sangadji of Toronto’s York University) said. “It’s supposed to be renewable, but is it?”

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New growth presents the possibility that the police, army and government will continue to collaborate to evict residents living atop valuable minerals, said Melky Nahar, a campaigner at Jatam. READ MORE

Meeting Paris climate goals will require EV innovation: MIT report (Utility Dive)

Excerpt from Utility Dive: …

The researchers found that, as populations grow, so will “global demand for personal mobility,” and travel in light duty vehicles could increase 50% in the U.S. by mid-century. The emissions impact of that increased travel could be mitigated by more electric and clean fuel vehicles, but only if that is accompanied by more electric infrastructure and a decarbonization of the power sector.
The study also modeled a future with a low-cost, door-to-door autonomous vehicle (AV) mobility service and found that it could increase congestion, travel times and vehicle miles traveled, while also reducing public transit ridership. Mitigating the negative impacts of the service would require public policy interventions to encourage transit use and reduce private vehicle ownership. READ MORE

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