Indonesia stops nickel mining operations at top tourist diving destination
The Indonesian government announced Tuesday they had suspended four nickel mining operations in Raja Ampat, one of the country's top tourist destinations for diving and snorkeling.
'Starting today, the government has revoked four mining operation permits in Raja Ampat,' Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia told reporters after a Cabinet meeting in the presidential palace in the capital, Jakarta.
Raja Ampat, an archipelagic regency in Southwest Papua province, is spread over nearly 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles) and is home to 75% of the world's coral species and more than 1,600 fish species. It is a designated UNESCO Global Geopark which includes marine conservation zones managed by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.
Lahadalia said the decision came after an investigation by the Ministry of Environment uncovered 'several violations in the environmental context' by four companies holding mining permits in Raja Ampat.
None of the four companies had started nickel operations as they failed to gain government approval for their Work Plan and Expenditure Budget, Lahadalia said.
Last week, Greenpeace Indonesia and Papuan Youth staged a peaceful protest during the Indonesia Critical Minerals Conference & Expo. They demanded the closure of five nickel mining companies operating in Raja Ampat, including PT Gag Nikel, a subsidiary of state-owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang.
The government suspended nickel mining operations at four of the five companies. The fifth, Gag Nikel, has been allowed to continue its operations on Gag Island as it lies outside the geopark area, Lahadalia said. Gag Island is about 42 kilometers (26 miles) west of Piyanemo, a popular diving spot in Raja Ampat.
Gag Nikel has a concession area of 130 square kilometers (50 square miles). It produced around 3 million wet metric tons of nickel in 2024, and is expected to produce the same amount in 2025 and 2026.
Lahadalia said Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has instructed him, along with ministers for the environment and forestry, to closely monitor Gag Nikel's mining operation.
'We are really serious in our intent to protect the environment in Raja Ampat," Lahadalia said. 'We want to produce nickel that is environmentally friendly and acceptable (to the world's standard).'
Indonesia has the largest nickel reserves in the world and aims to dominate global nickel supply. Its nickel ore lies in shallow deposits, easily accessible when the rainforest is cut down.
In 2023, the country was responsible for more than half the supply of nickel globally. The country has gone from having two nickel smelters to 27 over the last decade and plans to open 22 more, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Nickel was once known mainly for making stainless steel, but demand has skyrocketed as automakers like Tesla use it to make electric vehicle batteries and larger battery makers use it in clean electricity projects.
Rapid growth of Indonesia's nickel industry has already led to environmental degradation across several regions on Sulawesi Island, said Greenpeace forest campaigner Iqbal Damanik.
'Now nickel mining is also threatening Raja Ampat, a place that is often called the last paradise on Earth,' Damanik said.
Over 500 hectares of forest and vegetation have been cleared for nickel mines on the West Papua islands of Gag, Kawe and Manuran, according to Greenpeace Indonesia.
The three islands are classified as small islands. Indonesia's law on the management of coastal areas and small islands prohibits mining as it could lead to soil runoff and sedimentation that endangers coral reefs and marine ecosystems.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump's EPA announces major rollbacks to power plant pollution limits
US power plants will be allowed to pollute nearby communities and the wider world with more unhealthy air toxins and an unlimited amount of planet-heating gases under new regulatory rollbacks proposed by Donald Trump's administration, experts warned. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would repeal a landmark climate rule that aims to mostly eliminate greenhouse gases from power plants by the 2030s and would, separately, weaken another regulation that restricts power plants' release of hazardous air pollutants such as mercury. 'We choose to both protect the environment and grow the economy,' said Lee Zeldin, administrator of the EPA, at an event to announce the plans. He said the rollbacks will save households money while also defying what he called 'the climate change cult'. The climate rule has 'saddled our critical power sector with expensive, unreasonable and burdensome regulations', Zeldin said. 'American energy suffered and Americans who rely on reliable, affordable energy suffered. The good news is those days are over.' The EPA's proposals will go out for public comment and are likely to face legal challenges. They target a rule crafted last year by the Biden administration to phase out emissions from electricity-producing fossil fuel plants, which are responsible for around a quarter of US greenhouse gases, and a regulation called the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which Biden toughened in 2023 to slash harmful pollution suffered by communities. These rollbacks come despite overwhelming scientific evidence of the dire consequences of the worsening climate crisis and the harm caused by pollutants such as mercury, which can seep into water, soils and the air and has been linked to neurological damage in young children as well as heart, lung and immune system ailments in adults. Coal-fired power plants cause nearly half of all mercury emissions in the US, according to the EPA. More than 200 health experts wrote to the EPA on Wednesday warning the moves 'would lead to the biggest pollution increases in decades and is a blatant give-away to polluters'. The experts added the reversals are 'a direct contradiction to the Environmental Protection Agency's mission of protecting public health and the environment'. Trump, however, has vowed to boost fossil fuel production at all costs, having reaped record donations from the oil and gas industry during his election campaign. At Wednesday's EPA event, Zeldin was joined by eight lawmakers, all Republicans – Kevin Cramer, Troy Balderson, Brett Guthrie, Carol Miller, Dan Meuser, Rob Bresnahan, Michael Rulli and Riley Moore – who have collectively received more than $3m from fossil fuel donors in their own election campaigns, a Guardian analysis of the OpenSecrets database shows. Bresnahan, a Pennsylvania representative, holds personal financial interests in more than 20 fossil fuel companies. In justifying the deletion of the Biden climate plan, which the EPA previously estimated would deliver $370bn in net benefits, Zeldin has claimed that US power plants only produce a small and declining fraction of the world's emissions. This is despite the fact that if these power plants were a country, it would be the sixth-largest emitter on the planet. Gina McCarthy, who was EPA administrator under Barack Obama, said that Zeldin's 'dismantling of our nation's protections from power plant pollution is absolutely illogical and indefensible. It's a purely political play that goes against decades of science and policy review.' 'By giving a green light to more pollution, his legacy will forever be someone who does the bidding of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our health,' she added. 'Everyone will be affected by his actions, but the most vulnerable among us, our kids and grandkids, will suffer the most.' The EPA has embarked upon a wide-ranging blitz upon environmental regulations since Trump became president, setting about removing or loosening clean air and water rules that, collectively, were on track to save 200,000 American lives in the decades ahead. Trump, who has adopted the mantra of 'drill, baby, drill', has claimed unhindered fossil fuel production will bring down energy costs, although he has sought to hobble clean energy such as solar and wind, which are typically the cheapest sources of new electricity generation. The rollbacks follow the second-hottest May on record globally, and a record-hot 2024 that unleashed a stunning number of climate-driven disasters and six weeks of extra-dangerously hot days. Experts have warned that sea level rise is on track to cause 'catastrophic inland migration', including to millions of Americans, with climate shocks set to wipe 50% from global GDP by the end of this century. 'It's completely reprehensible that Donald Trump would seek to roll back these lifesaving standards and do more harm to the American people and our planet just to earn some brownie points with the fossil fuel industry,' said Patrick Drupp, climate policy director at the Sierra Club. 'This administration is transparently trading American lives for campaign dollars and the support of fossil fuel companies, and Americans ought to be disgusted and outraged that their government has launched an assault on our health and our future.'
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Reeves protects nature-friendly farming budget amid squeeze on environment spend
Green groups have welcomed the Government's decision to protect the nature-friendly farming budget, but concerns remain about the overall squeeze on environmental spending. Ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' spending review on Wednesday, environmentalists warned that cutting the budget for payments that support farmers and landowners to deliver public goods, such as healthy soil, clean water and hedgerows, would threaten the Government's efforts on food security and tackling nature's declines. It comes as farmers face increasingly challenging climate conditions, while being hit by changes to inheritance tax and the abrupt closure of this year's sustainable farming incentive (SFI), the biggest strand of the environmental land management scheme (Elms). In the spending review, the Government confirmed an increase in the budget for Elms from £1.6 billion in 2023/2024 to £2 billion by 2028/29. But the Environment Department's (Defra) overall budget will be reduced by 0.7% in real terms by the end of the spending review period. Green groups also estimate a £130 million a year real-terms cut to day-to-day resource funding. The department will aim to make some savings through efficiency but it is not yet clear which other areas of Defra's spending could be squeezed. After fears that the department would suffer deeper cuts, green groups and farmers largely welcomed the spending review, especially the move to protect Elms. However, they immediately raised concerns about the impact of the overall budget cut, as well as fears that spending for Natural England, the Government's advisers on the environment, and the Environment Agency watchdog, could be reduced. Campaigners said that Defra still remains under-resourced to enforce environmental laws at scale, limiting regulators' ability to hold polluters, including water companies, to account. Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth's head of policy, said: 'Our natural world is also in crisis. 'Despite modest investment in environmental farming, trees and peatland restoration, the reality is that Defra is still underfunded, farmers need more money, and planning reforms that strip away wildlife protections will accelerate nature's decline.' Joan Edwards, director of policy and public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts, said: 'Defra will have an extremely tight budget and, against a backdrop of persistent inflation, there has been a real-terms cut to vital resource funding of around £130 million a year. 'This means that real risks to nature remain. We don't yet have details on how regulatory bodies like Natural England and the Environment Agency will be funded, for example, and any cuts to their work has serious implications for nature recovery.' James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, said: 'We welcome increased funding for Elms. 'At the same time, years of under-funding has whittled away Defra's ability to protect the environment and enforce the law. 'The environment secretary says he is serious about improving water quality, so it is important that Labour gives him the resources he needs to honour the promises made to millions who voted for a government that pledged to clean up our rivers.' Ami McCarthy, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, welcomed the Chancellor's announcement on investing in renewables, energy efficiency and public transport. 'But we desperately need a proper plan for nature-friendly farming to protect the environment and nature to save bees, wildlife and endangered species,' she said. 'The Government won't meet its commitment to protect 30% of our land by the end of the decade without proper investment and a radical transformation of how we restore biodiversity.' Farming payments in England have switched from EU-era subsidies, which were based on the size of land farmed, to funding for measures that boost nature and reduce input costs, such as pesticide use. But the biggest plank of the new approach, the SFI, was abruptly closed to applications in March after the money was all spent, and a reformed scheme will not reopen until early next year. Figures published by the Treasury to accompany the spending review show that while total department budgets are forecast to grow by an annual average of 2.3% across the period of 2023/24 to 2028/29, there are sharp variations between individual departments. The Government allocated £2.7 billion a year in sustainable farming and nature recovery until 2028-29. The farming and countryside programme will receive £2.3 billion, which was the same average spend under the previous Conservative government, and up to £400 million from additional nature schemes. Elsewhere, the Government has committed £4.2 billion over three years, 2026-27 to 2028-29 to build and maintain flood defences. This will average £1.4 billion each year and is a 5% increase compared with the current spending review period, Defra said.
Coin Geek
6 hours ago
- Coin Geek
BitFuFu's record-reaking output demonstrates mining dominance
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Singapore-based BitFuFu Inc. (NASDAQ: FUFU) announced a record-breaking performance in May 2025, achieving a hash rate of 34.1 exahashes per second (EH/s) and mining 400 BTC, a 91% increase from April. This surge, reported on June 4, 2025, underscores BitFuFu's growing dominance in the block reward mining sector, driven by its cloud-mining platform, strategic expansions, and efficient hardware deployments. Despite financial challenges in Q1 2025, the company's operational success highlights its resilience and adaptability in a competitive landscape. This article explores the factors behind BitFuFu's record output, its implications for the mining industry, and the challenges it faces moving forward. BitFuFu's May performance, detailed in a company press release, marks a 20.5% month-over-month hash rate increase, with 357 BTC produced by cloud-mining clients and 43 BTC from self-mining operations. The company's total power capacity reached 651 megawatts (MW), a 15% jump from April, spread across facilities on five continents. This growth was fueled by the full-month utilization of additional mining hardware deployed in late April, primarily Bitmain's S21 series miners, known for their efficiency at 19.1 joules per terahash (J/TH). BitFuFu also added more machines in late May, setting the stage for potential gains in June. The company's cloud-mining platform, which accounts for over half its revenue, saw its user base grow to 615,559 registered users by May's end, reflecting strong demand for accessible mining solutions. Several factors contributed to BitFuFu's record-breaking output. First, strategic partnerships and hardware acquisitions played a pivotal role. A January 2025 agreement with Bitmain for 80,000 S21 miners, potentially adding 16 EH/s, bolstered BitFuFu's capacity. The company also expanded its power infrastructure, including a majority stake in a 51 MW facility in Oklahoma acquired in February 2025, leveraging low-cost electricity to enhance profitability. These moves align with BitFuFu's goal to secure 1 gigawatt (GW) of power capacity by 2026, as stated by CEO Leo Lu during the Q4 2024 earnings call. Second, the rising BTC price, averaging $104,000 in May, incentivized miners to scale operations, with BitFuFu capitalizing by selling 178 BTC to boost liquidity while retaining 1,709 BTC in its treasury. The cloud-mining model, BitFuFu's primary revenue driver, has been a key differentiator. By allowing users to lease mining power without managing hardware, BitFuFu has democratized access to BTC mining, attracting over 600,000 users globally. The launch of BitFuFuOS, a software solution optimizing mining output by up to 20%, further enhances its appeal to both retail and institutional clients. However, BitFuFu's success comes amid financial challenges. Its Q1 2025 earnings, reported on June 5, 2025, revealed a revenue drop to $78 million from $144 million in Q1 2024, driven by expired hashrate contracts and hardware relocations. The company posted a $17 million net loss and negative $11 million adjusted EBITDA, impacted by a $19.4 million unrealized loss on digital assets. Despite these setbacks, analysts like H.C. Wainwright maintain a 'Buy' rating with a $7 price target, citing BitFuFu's operational growth and long-term BTC exposure. The company's stock, trading at $3.63 in early June, has faced volatility, down 20.3% this quarter, reflecting broader market uncertainties like potential U.S. tariffs on mining hardware. The record output has broader implications for the BTC mining industry. BitFuFu's 34.1 EH/s contributes significantly to the global hash rate, which hit 700 EH/s in June 2025, enhancing network security. However, the energy-intensive nature of mining—BitFuFu's 651 MW capacity alone rivals small cities—raises environmental concerns. While the company has not disclosed its energy mix, the industry's shift toward renewables (59% globally, per the Bitcoin Mining Council) could pressure BitFuFu to prioritize sustainable sources. Additionally, rising mining difficulty and the 2024 Bitcoin halving, which reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC, challenge smaller miners, favoring large-scale operators like BitFuFu. Looking ahead, BitFuFu's plans to expand in the U.S., Canada, and other regions, coupled with its focus on vertical integration, position it for continued growth. However, regulatory risks, such as Russia's recent crackdown on illegal mining or Pakistan's International Monetary Fund (IMF) scrutiny, highlight the need for stable policies. BitFuFu's ability to navigate cash burn, maintain user growth, and leverage efficient hardware will be critical to sustaining its trajectory. For now, its May 2025 performance cements its role as a major player in the evolving block reward mining landscape. Watch: Gorilla Pool provides end to end solution for ASIC mining title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""> BitFuFu BitFuFuOS Block Reward Mining BTC Cloud Mining
