Sludge collapse kills 1 at a Chinese-funded nickel plant in Indonesia

PALU, Indonesia — One person is dead and two are missing after a nickel waste disposal site collapsed on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, officials said Wednesday. It was the latest deadly accident at Chinese-funded nickel smelting plants there.

The Indonesian victims were operating dump trucks on Saturday when they were engulfed by sludge-like material that is removed in ferronickel burning, said Deddy Kurniawan, spokesperson for PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP.

The collapse occurred after torrential rains.

The body of a 23-year-old was pulled out a day after the accident, and two others are feared dead under tons of waste material, police said.

Authorities are looking into whether negligence by the company led to the deaths, police said.

Nickel smelting plants in Indonesia are part of China’s global development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative. Nearly 50% of PT IMIP’s shares are owned by a Chinese holding company, and the rest are owned by two Indonesian companies.

Nickel is a key component of batteries for electric vehicles.

In December 2023, about 21 workers, including eight Chinese, died when the furnace at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Steel exploded while they were repairing it. The accident occurred inside a nickel processing-based industrial area under the management of PT IMIP.

In 2022, a truck ran over and killed a Chinese worker while he was repairing a road in PT IMIP’s mining area.