Former employees of the world’s largest nickel mine – co-owned by French giant Eramet – denounce a vast “system of concealment” of deadly workplace accidents and grave environmental damages.
Undeclared accidents and deaths, river contamination, pollution, environmental data fraud… As many irregularities concealed by the management of the Indonesian Weda Bay Nickel (WBN) mine, indirectly co-owned by French multinational Eramet.
Despite an investigation launched by Eramet based on at least 6 alerts of its employees about the mine’s management, one compromised supervisor was promoted, according to information obtained by EIF and its partners Narasi, Mediapart and Der Freitag.
As Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Indonesia to help build “tomorrow’s economy” in critical minerals needed for the energy transition, our partners reveal the extent of the ongoing environmental and social scandal on WBN.
Ruined by the race for critical minerals
“Before, the river would become muddy after heavy rains. But it has become permanent after the mine’s ramp-up,” recalls Abdallah, a resident of Lelief, a village close to the WBN mine located on the island of Halmahera, in northeast Indonesia.
In 2017, Tsingshan (57%) and Eramet (43%) became joint shareholders in Strand Minerals Indonesia, which owns 90% of Weda Bay Nickel (WBN) joint-venture which manages the mine. The remaining 10% is held PT Antam, an Indonesian state-owned company.
The arrival of Tsingshan led to the rapid expansion of the 45,000-hectare WBN mining concession, and the creation of an industrial zone to refine nickel on site, the IWIP park, wholly owned by the Chinese group.
The surge in industrial activity on the island and the arrival of almost 50,000 employees on site, almost doubling the local population, have left the region unrecognizable, such as the rest of the country.
Within a few years only, Indonesia has become the world’s leading nickel producer, concentrating 55% of the mineral’s global output by 2023. A consequence to the explosion in global demand for critical metals, essential for the manufacture of electric vehicles.
An extractivist race in which Eramet and Tsingshan have successfully positioned themselves, with respectively 166 million and 220 million euros of net income generated by their stake in WBN in 2024.
For many, however, this nickel rush is more of a plague than an economic opportunity.
And the negative impact of these developments makes no secrets for locals like Adlun Fikri, community leader of Sagea, a village located further east: “Here, without a double-layer mask, your lungs fill up with heavy dust after a few minutes only”.
According to information obtained by EIF and its partners, WBN’s colossal profits have been made at the expense of entire communities, and of the ecosystems on which they depend.
Four whistleblowers explained to us how this was achieved through a vast system of “fraud” involving environmental and social data, and backed-up by the mine’s top management.
Unreported deadly accidents and cardiac arrests
“Eramet is being lied to by the Chinese”, says Maï*, a former WBN subcontractor who denounces a situation of ‘double allegiance’ on the part of the mine’s management, to the detriment of the French shareholder.
According to Maï, the mine’s management is entirely focused on Chinese interests. Even to the point of sending WBN executives to work on mines outside Eramet’s portfolio, such as the Chinese “Position” mine.
“The working and safety conditions of the Chinese and Indonesians there are deplorable. Some sleep more than 10 to a room in small shacks. In the event of an accident, they present themselves to the authorities in a different uniform so as not to incriminate WBN”, she continues.
On the WBN site itself, serious accidents are “systematically concealed from the Eramet group”, she adds. Several cardiac arrests and truck accidents were never reported, as confirmed by at least two other former employees.
Maï also explains how, earlier this year, a death was concealed, not only from Eramet, but also WBN’s employees:
“A person died crushed by a truck. The workers eventually found out and organized a minute’s silence, without management offering any feedback on the incident or discussing new safety measures. This was very badly perceived by the employees”.
Mediapart was able to corroborate this testimony with 2 other employees.
All confirm that the mine management declared the death to have occurred outside the concession, to avoid having to report it.
According to Maï, everything has worsened since Tsingshan’s arrival at WBN, where employees’ working conditions have deteriorated. “Some Chinese employees work 24 weeks in a row with only two weeks off,” she adds.
She remains convinced, however, that Eramet “only wants to do the right thing, but is faced with a management prepares the Group’s on-site inspection in advance in order to conceal what is truly going on”.
Eramet’s on-site teams are also said to be rarely accompanied by a translator, complicating their field inspection attempts – a fact confirmed by three other former mine employees.
“The facts described are extremely serious and we are deeply shocked by this testimony,” the Eramet Group told Mediapart, confirming that it had no knowledge of the fatal accident.
“We would like to reiterate that no one should ever be injured or lose their life in the workplace,” adds the mining giant.
The multinational also states that “heightened vigilance and appropriate due diligence procedures have been initiated and will be reinforced in the coming months” and acknowledges that “improving reporting procedures” implemented by WBN represents a “point of work” identified by Eramet.
Toxic waste, polluted rivers and environmental falsifications
“This is the worst mining operation I’ve ever seen in my career. Air and water quality measurements are falsified. WBN is deforesting outside its legally allocated concession. Any attempt at correction is systematically rejected”, Henrik denounces.
“The Group knows about the environmental data. Six Eramet employees have denounced the situation to the Paris head office,” he adds.
Despite this opacity, many residents like Abdallah are certain that a catastrophe is underway: “Our rivers are contaminated. The whole river system is affected”. Even if they don’t have the means to prove it.
Eramet claims to be transparent about these environmental risks: “We are fully aware that the processing of mineral resources has an impact on the environment and must therefore be carried out responsibly”, the multinational assures our partner EIF.
The group also states that it “does everything in its power to limit these impacts”. Asked about possible pollution, the group assures us that it is “vigilantly monitoring” the activities of WBN, which “does not use chemicals”.
But in reality, the mine doesn’t need such products to pollute.
During any mining excavation, toxic elements naturally present underground resurface with the extracted sediments, known as “waste rock”.
In the absence of proper management, various heavy metals, gases and fine particles contained in this waste rock can contaminate the surrounding rivers, rendering them unfit for human use or aquatic life.
It is this very management that is called into question by a report from the Indonesian authorities among 25 environmental irregularities, dated 2021. French media Reporterre also revealed that WBN had received a “red bulletin” for its “environmental mismanagement” that same year.
Today, Eramet asserts to our partner EIF that a “management system” has been put in place to “limit suspended solids in run-off water”, in line with Indonesian standards and including various basins and corridors.
However, a much more recent study – commissioned by the mine itself from Khairun University – still concluded last September that WBN needed to develop new “sediment basins” and isolate its B3 waste sites, classified as hazardous and toxic.
Worse, the study found that 15 rivers were contaminated with heavy metals (chromium 6, lead and mercury), cyanide and hydrogen sulfide, all linked to mining activities.
For Henrik, the persistence of these problems stems from WBN’s “constant lying” about its environmental arrangements at Eramet. “Everything is either falsified, suppressed or covered up. There aren’t enough basins and they don’t work properly”, he asserts.
On the basis of exclusive data from the mine, supplied by a former subcontractor, Mediapart was able to identify MEST (total suspended solids in sediments) values up to 12.6 times higher than those declared by the mine in weekly reports to the Eramet Group.
Three former WBN employees confirm a real “logic of concealment” within the mine. They all denounce to Mediapart the poisonous climate within the mining company eversince these reports.
“Data concealment” and promotion of a compromised manager
They all explain that the reports made to Eramet’s head office have caused a wave of panic within WBN.
“The mine’s management is trying to cover its tracks”, confides this former employee on site. “Overnight, the mine’s computer servers became inaccessible and our work and personal computers were temporarily seized”.
All explain that the reports made to Eramet’s head office have sent a wave of panic through WBN.
This deputy director, implicated by at least 6 alerts sent to Eramet’s Paris headquarters, alongside the mine main manager, was nevertheless recently promoted. According to Henrick, this scandal is prompting more and more employees to sound the alarm every day.
“This management is criminal and their continued presence is unacceptable”, deplores this former Eramet employee.
Questioned about its role in its influence over the mine’s management, Eramet recently told EIF and its partners that it was only a “minority shareholder”, with no “decision-making role” within the mine.
Their former employee, contacted at the end of April, was astonished by this state of affairs: “These two people are former employees of Comilog, Eramet’s subsidiary in Gabon. It was Eramet who originally placed them here, wasn’t it?”
“Responsible mining” without accountability?
The issue of Eramet’s minority shareholding and its real power in WBN also raises questions for Klervi Le Guenic of the French association Canopée, which has been denouncing the deforestation caused by WBN for several years:
“Eramet constantly takes refuge behind this argument. But in its communications, it proudly poses as a co-shareholder, explaining that this mine is a pillar of their strategy… You have to make a choice,” says the association’s campaign manager.
For the NGO Survival International, which alerts on the risk of genocide posed by WBN towards isolated indigenous tribes, the argument is thin:
“Eramet cannot hide behind its shareholding when it is responsible for the mining operations of a company that risks annihilating uncontacted indigenous peoples”, according to Callum Russel, researcher for the NGO.
However, a few days before the publication of this investigation, Eramet informed us that the director and deputy director of WBN had finally been dismissed, on the basis of internal reports received by the group.
“An internal investigation has revealed that procedures implemented and managed by the partner do not provide a 100% guarantee of the transparency and integrity of certain data consolidated by PT Weda Bay Nickel”, says Eramet.
The multinational also points out that this situation gave rise to the risk of “potentially erroneous data” being used.
Eramet asserts that it “immediately requested the withdrawal of the mine manager, effective May 7”, along with his deputy. The company states that an “interim manager” has been appointed, whose mission includes “improving the reporting procedures in place”.
Yet, the Group had told us before that it had no decision-making power within the mine? When questioned again on the subject, Eramet specifies that it does not have “unilateral decision-making power”. Nuance…
“It’s good news and ultimately shows Eramet’s power within WBN… Now all that’s left is for things to really change on the ground – not just in the organization chart”, Henrick hopes.
The Group itself states that “an independent third-party audit is planned from 2026”, as part of WBN’s commitment to IRMA (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance), a standard “recognized as the most demanding in the international mining sector”.
Alexandre Brutelle (EIF), Aqwam Fiazmi Hanifan (Narasi), Linda Osusky (Der Freitag)
This investigation was supported by the JournalismFund Europe
EIF members who participated to this investigation:
