A senior Indonesian cabinet minister warned companies operating in a nickel-rich region to comply with the country's environmental regulations or risk getting their operating licenses revoked.
In the last three years, Indonesia aims to become a regional manufacturing hub for electric vehicle batteries, signing more than a dozen deals worth US $15 billion with global manufacturers including Hyundai, LG and Foxconn.
Environmentalists have warned against realizing their ambitions through rapacious mining and mineral processing, which they say will irreversibly damage the environment, as evidenced in other parts of the country.
You have to be adherent to the regulations set up by the Indonesian government. Luhut Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, said if you can't, you will shut down your industry within two months.
He said that it would reduce some of our revenue, but then we don't want to compensate for that with a bad environment.