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Hotel industry raises concern over nickel mine in Raja Ampat
The PHRI says that although the nickel production facility on Gag Island is likely to stimulate the local economy, its adverse impacts on the island's environment and marine ecosystem is likely to trickle down to affect nearby Raja Ampat Marine Park, a super priority tourism destination.
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Chimneys at a nickel smelter spew a column of emissions on July 7, 2024, into the air above Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) in Lelilef, North Maluku. (AFP/Azzam Risqullah)
T
he Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) has expressed concern over potentially adverse impacts on the country’s tourist industry from a nickel project in the Raja Ampat regency, Southwest Papua.
State-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) purchased stakes in a smelter owned by PT Jiu Long Metal Industry, a subsidiary of global nickel giant Eternal Tshingshan Group of China, a move many fear could expedite mining activities and harm to environmental damage on Gag Island in the Raja Ampat island chain, a so-called super priority tourism destination at the heart of the Coral Triangle.
Antam subsidiary PT Gag Nikel acquired 30 percent shares in Jiu Long worth US$102 million, it said in an exchange filing on Oct. 7, Reuters reported.
Gag Nikel operates a mine on its namesake island in the Raja Ampat Islands that is estimated to contain over 42 million dry tonnes of nickel ore reserve, according to Antam’s annual report last year. The mine also contains the company’s third-largest limonite and saprolite reserves.
The company, which started operations in 2018 after obtaining a work contract in 1998 and an environmental permit in 2014, has an operating license that covers the entirety of Gag Island, which is categorized as a protected tropical rainforest.
PHRI chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani said that while the project was expected to have a positive impact on local hotels in cities like provincial capital Sorong by increasing accommodation demand and business opportunities, but he doubted the same could be said for tourism in Raja Ampat.
“If it is related to tourism, [stakeholders] must be careful [about] the environmental impacts, because like it or not, mining will [damage] the surrounding nature,” he told The Jakarta Post on Nov. 4.
