KAWASI, Indonesia — Beneath a large corporate banner, Indonesian mining giant Harita Nickel held a fishing tournament near Kawasi village in March 2023. Locals cast their lines into the clear blue waters off Obi island in the remote east of the country, competing for fresh catch. 

“Good quality fishes are still widely available in the Kawasi waters,” said Harita’s then-director of external relations, Stevi Thomas, in a press release about the event. Thomas was later convicted of bribing the governor of the province, North Maluku, for permits for Harita companies. 

The waters in North Maluku teem with fish, including skipjack tuna, a local staple that Indonesia exports around the world. But Obi island is not only a rich fishing ground; it’s also one of the most important sources of raw material for the global electric vehicle industry. Harita exports nickel mined on the island to battery material companies supplying Tesla, Toyota, BMW and many more.

While making a public show that marine life was abundant and safe to eat, behind closed doors Harita knew fish in Obi’s waters had been contaminated with heavy metals. 

A study undertaken at Harita's request, obtained by The Gecko Project, detected dangerous levels of lead and cadmium in fish near Kawasi and other nearby coastal waters between February and April 2022.

Later that year, a consultancy commissioned by Harita found that while lead levels had fallen below safety limits, chromium and nickel in fish had risen sharply. Still, Harita continued to claim that fish were safe to eat and that marine life was healthy.

These studies came at a crucial moment for Harita, as it prepared to launch a high-profile bid to list on the Indonesian stock exchange in April 2023 and its environmental track record was under intense scrutiny.

Cadmium and lead — the heavy metals that had been found in the fish — are known to damage organs even at low exposures. Nickel and chromium are needed by the human body in trace amounts but can be harmful at higher concentrations. All four are by-products of mining operations and have been found in other Indonesian mining regions.

Kevin Brix, an Environmental toxicologist and associate professor at the University of Miami, noted that lead is a neuro-developmental toxicant — particularly dangerous for young children. “So it’s a big deal,” he said, referring to the heavy metals found in fish in the waters off Obi Island.

As global demand for electric vehicles has soared, companies throughout the supply chain have come under scrutiny for the environmental damage linked to nickel extraction in Indonesia. Tesla, Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, and Toyota — all of which ultimately buy battery materials from companies supplied by Harita — did not respond to The Gecko Project’s request for comment on the findings of this investigation. 

Honda said it has “zero tolerance” for environmental harm, and conducts ongoing due diligence to ensure compliance. BMW said it had contacted suppliers to “address the allegations.” Mercedes-Benz said it takes reports of potential human rights violations “very seriously” and “investigates them thoroughly.” Volvo said it is committed to responsible sourcing and views due diligence as an “ongoing, proactive, and reactive process.”

This report — produced in collaboration with Indonesian magazine Tempo — builds on a previous investigation by The Gecko Project and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that found Harita Nickel had long known its operations polluted waters on Obi Island with chromium-6, a highly toxic substance. 

Harita Nickel began extracting nickel on Obi Island in 2010. In 2015, fish in Kawasi tested safe for metals, according to a company-commissioned study. Chromium, cadmium, lead, and manganese were below detectable levels.

But internal documents obtained by The Gecko Project show that in 2019 levels of cadmium had risen sharply in fish in Obi’s coastal waters. In November that year, a Harita-commissioned report found cadmium in snapper and grouper at 1.4 to 17 times the Indonesian regulatory limit.

In 2020, an independent study by Muhammad Aris of the University of Khairun found nickel and iron levels, and other contaminants, in the waters around Obi Island exceeded Indonesian marine water quality standards. Eleven species of fish, including grouper and snapper, showed tissue damage that he attributed to heavy metal exposure. He noted these species were eaten by coastal communities and were economically valuable.

In 2021, the company dramatically expanded its mining operations on the island, opening a new plant to refine raw nickel. That enabled it to supply battery component manufacturers who, in turn, supply giants of the electric vehicle industry. But it also generated more waste.

In February 2022, Harita flew in Professor Etty Riani, a marine ecotoxicologist from Indonesia’s prestigious IPB University. She would conduct an analysis on marine life in the coastal waters off Obi and peer-review Aris’s earlier research.

Two months later, officials from several government ministries joined Etty on site visits, according to a document shared by a Harita health and safety employee with a bank underwriting its stock exchange listing. The same document alleged that Aris’s research was methodologically flawed.

But Etty's study had in fact confirmed that fish were contaminated — echoing Aris’s findings. Her team tested multiple species of fish off the coast of Obi and surrounding islands, including some commonly eaten by locals. Heavy metal concentrations were compared with the maximum limits set by the Indonesian Food and Drug Agency (FDA) for contamination in processed fish.

In several cases, lead levels in one kilogram of fish exceeded the Maximum Tolerable Intake — international weekly consumption guidelines set by agencies such as the World Health Organization — for children.

Fish from Kawasi had lead at more than 1.5 times the FDA limit for processed fish products. In the village of Soligi, 12 kilometres around the coast from Harita’s mining site, a locally eaten reef fish had nearly three times the limit — a level the report noted “far exceeds” quality standards. The study recommended that people limit their consumption of several fish species to reduce the risk of heavy metal exposure.

Tamzin Blewett, associate professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Alberta, said the elevated levels of lead and cadmium are “not something that you would normally see,” and described them as “pretty heavy toxicants” with serious developmental effects, especially in children. “Keeping those low is critical,” she added.

Etty's study suggested that pollution from small-scale gold mining in the island's north was likely the major cause of lead contamination, but also said nearby nickel operations could be a source. While Obi’s waters were classified as “lightly polluted,” the worst pollution around the island was near the harbour on the doorstep of Harita’s mine.

Gold mining has taken place on Obi since 1995. As an earlier Harita study showed, safe levels of heavy metals were detected in fish in 2015. But by 2022, shortly after a major expansion of nickel operations, some species of fish were unsafe for consumption above set amounts.

An email from a Harita marine environmental manager to two senior colleagues suggested keeping the full study “for internal use only.” The manager wrote that sections detailing how much fish people could safely eat each week had been deleted, along with water quality data showing that lead, cadmium, mercury, and other pollutants generally “exceed water quality standards.” He proposed rephrasing some parts about breaches of water quality standards “to make them softer.”

In March 2023, IPB University published a shortened “executive summary” of Etty's study on its website. Any evidence that fish were unsafe to eat — notably any reference to lead and cadmium — was gone, reflecting edits suggested inside Harita. The report ended with the conclusion that the fish were “safe for consumption”. 

It was a sharp departure from the version circulated and edited by Harita staff, which found multiple species carrying high levels of lead and advised limiting intake, especially for children.

By 2023, Harita had begun to use this version of Etty's study as the basis of public claims that fish were safe to eat in Obi.

It cited the study in both its 2022 and 2023 sustainability reports. The latter stated that “seawater quality surrounding our operations was generally good and fish were safe for consumption.”

Internally, however, Harita had received more data showing contamination of fish. One draft report by Tura Consulting, a prominent Indonesian minerals and mining consultancy, found that although lead levels had declined, chromium and nickel had increased. It warned that nickel is toxic to several fish species. 

By February 2023 — two months before Harita’s stock exchange listing, or IPO — a marine environmental manager that noted nickel in fish had risen ninefold. A week later, a colleague urged that new testing be carried out as a “rush hour” priority. Our investigation did not find any internal communication or data after this point.

Harita weeks later hosted its fishing tournament to promote Obi’s marine abundance. Our investigation found no evidence that Harita warned villagers of the health risks posed by heavy metal contamination.

That same month, Indonesian mining watchdog group JATAM wrote to the chairman of Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, citing Aris’s research — the independent, public study showing contamination — and raising concerns over Harita’s environmental record.

In its response to the Indonesia Stock Exchange, Harita again cited research suggesting Obi’s fisheries remained healthy. It wrote that “several marine experts have conducted research in Kawasi waters and found abundant fisheries productivity in Obi Island waters and to date it is still well maintained.”

These claims may have been true — that fish remained prevalent. But Harita omitted any reference to the contamination by heavy metals.

Bayu Perdana, a Bali-based lawyer who handles white-collar defense and complex commercial disputes, told The Gecko Project that evidence of heavy metal contamination in fish would likely qualify as “material information” under Indonesian Capital Markets Law  — information that could influence investors’ decisions or affect a company’s share value. 

Such information must be disclosed before an IPO. “Withholding material information — such as environmental contamination — during the IPO process,” he added, “can carry serious legal consequences."

In response to questions from The Gecko Project’s reporting partner, Harita Nickel’s communications head Haviez Gautama insisted that fish in Obi were safe to eat, citing the  published version of Etty Riani’s report. He said the research had been conducted independently of Harita, the company had not edited the report and had “no information or records regarding any amended or deleted versions.”

Haviez said Harita made all necessary disclosures during its IPO and that its prospectus reflected “all material data officially available” at the time it was submitted.

The internal findings never reached local residents, according to those interviewed by The Gecko Project. Villagers continue to consume fish from the waters around the mine, even if some suspect the mine has made doing so risky.

Nurhayati Jumadi, a Kawasi resident, said her family of seven adults and five children typically eats more than 14 kilograms of fish each week, including species identified in the Etty study as having contained elevated levels of lead that would require limiting consumption. She said they eat the entire fish.

“We eat fish every day,” she said. “If we don’t eat fish for even one day, we really can’t stand it. Because it’s a habit here.”

Sanusi, a local resident and fisherman, told The Gecko Project that families who depend on fishing are struggling to get by. “It’s getting harder to find fish along the coast,” he said. 

He worries about contamination in the fish he does manage to land. “Even my wife and children have forbidden me” from eating fish offal, he said. 

In June this year, Harita put on another fishing tournament in Obi — a now annual event. 

Tonny Gultom, the company’s head of health and safety, had once drank water from the local spring to show to assembled journalists that it was safe for consumption, after fielding months of data showing it was laced with carcinogenic waste. 

This time it was the fish he insisted were safe — the event was capped with the participants, both Harita employees and villagers, eating the fish they’d caught.

"The spirit is collaboration,” Tonny said in a press release. “In the momentum of World Environment Day, we invite the community to jointly protect the environment for future generations.” 

Read more reporting from The Gecko Project on Critical Minerals.

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Reporting by Alon Aviram 

Additional reporting by Georgia Gee and a journalist reporting from Indonesia (name withheld).

Editing by Tomasz Johnson.

Fact-checking by Ed Davey.

Multimedia editing by Katia Patin.

Header Image: Harita Nickel towers over Kawasi village on Obi Island, Indonesia. Credit: Rifki Anwar