Jakarta — Nickel From Sulawesi Mines Reaches VW, Ford, Tesla Batteries

Nickel mined on deforested indigenous land in Indonesia has entered the battery supply chains of Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla, according to an analysis of corporate disclosures and trade flows from the last two years, reported by The Guardian. The trail runs from two mines on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi through Chinese processing plants to battery makers that supply the three automakers.

Which mines and companies are named?

Ore from the Cahaya and Hengjaya mines was traced through regional smelters to processing plants in China run by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a cathode manufacturer that supplies CATL, the world's largest battery maker, The Guardian reported. Huayou's own corporate reports list U.S. and European carmakers as end-users of its materials, according to the analysis. A separate trade route runs from Huayou to LG, the South Korean battery group, via Poland, before reaching carmakers, the newspaper found.

The Cahaya mining concession alone covers 21,000 hectares, The Guardian reported, on land the Tolaki people describe as central to their way of life. Satellite analysis cited in the report shows the mines have produced widespread loss of primary rainforest in nickel-rich territory where the Tolaki live.

Why does nickel matter for EV batteries?

Nickel is used in cathodes — the positive electrode inside a lithium-ion battery — because it raises energy density, which lets an electric vehicle travel farther on a single charge, according to The Guardian. Indonesia holds the world's largest known nickel deposits, concentrated on Sulawesi, making the island a central node in global battery supply chains even as mining there expands into forested, indigenous-held land.

What is the human and environmental toll on the ground?

"We used to ask the forest for protection in return for our offerings," Wadimula, a Tolaki elder whose home sits on the edge of the Cahaya concession, told The Guardian. "Destroying it means destroying our own life." The newspaper's satellite analysis found the mining operations have driven deforestation of primary rainforest across land inhabited by the Tolaki, a reversal environmental groups say undercuts the broader climate case for electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles produce fewer of the emissions tied to global warming and local air pollution than gasoline- and diesel-powered cars, The Guardian noted. But the newspaper's reporting shows carmakers have struggled to keep the mineral supply chains behind those vehicles free of environmental damage, particularly for nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals sourced from Africa, Asia and South America.

How did the nickel get from Sulawesi to Detroit, Wolfsburg and Austin?

The path described by The Guardian runs in stages: ore extracted at Cahaya and Hengjaya moves to regional smelters in Indonesia, then to Huayou's processing plants in China, which convert raw nickel into cathode-grade material. From there, Huayou's filings list Western carmakers as customers directly, while a second documented route sends material to LG's European operations in Poland before it reaches automaker assembly lines. Each hand-off — miner to smelter, smelter to cathode maker, cathode maker to battery cell producer, cell producer to automaker — adds a layer that has made it difficult for any single company in the chain to verify the origin of every ton of nickel in a finished battery pack.

What happens next for carmakers and regulators?

The findings land as automakers face growing pressure to show their battery supply chains meet deforestation and indigenous-rights standards, particularly in markets like the European Union that have moved to tie market access to supply-chain due diligence. Because the nickel route described in the report passes through multiple intermediaries — Indonesian smelters, Chinese cathode makers, and in one branch a Korean battery supplier's Polish operations — the companies named face a trace-back problem common across critical-mineral supply chains rather than a single contract they can easily cancel.

What to watch

• Whether Volkswagen, Ford, Tesla, CATL, Huayou Cobalt or LG issue public responses disputing or confirming the trade and ownership links reported by The Guardian
• Any updated corporate disclosures from Huayou Cobalt identifying or removing specific mines, including Cahaya and Hengjaya, from its supplier list
• Regulatory action tied to EU or U.S. battery-sourcing rules that could require carmakers to document nickel origin mine-by-mine
• Further satellite or field monitoring of deforestation on the 21,000-hectare Cahaya concession and surrounding Tolaki land

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.