4.4 • 350 Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
A decade ago, Indonesia produced only 6% of the world’s supply of refined nickel. Now, it has a de facto monopoly on the market. How did it happen? The FT’s Jakarta correspondent A. Anantha Lakshmi and FT’s commodities correspondent Camilla Hodgson examine what propelled this explosive growth and how China helped it happen.
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For further reading:
‘The Opec of nickel’: Indonesia’s control of a critical metal
‘Production first, safety later’: inside the world’s largest nickel site
Western miner Eramet sees no profits in nickel processing without Chinese partners
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Follow A. Anantha Lakshmi and Camilla Hodgson on X (@AnanthalakshmiA) (@CamillaHodgson). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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0:36.2 | We're starting today in a region called Baja Dopee. |
0:41.0 | It's located on an island in the eastern part of Indonesia. |
0:44.9 | So for a long time, this area was covered by dense rainforest. |
0:50.0 | And there were only a few thousand residents living in and around Bahadopi, and most of them made a |
0:55.9 | living out of farming or fishing. |
0:58.1 | Only a decade ago, driving through this area was pretty much impossible. |
1:03.6 | So there were no paved roads here, no electricity. |
1:07.6 | When mining executives first started coming to Bahadopi to explore for nickel, they stayed in |
1:14.6 | inns or small huts. One executive said he was given a candle by an innkeeper when he first visited |
1:21.1 | here. But late last year, when my colleague Anantah Lakshmi drove through the main town in this |
1:27.1 | district, she experienced |
1:28.9 | something totally different. |
1:31.2 | I was quite surprised by how fairly developed it was. |
1:35.0 | The main street in the town was lined with dozens and dozens of shops, selling food, |
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