Mineral Intensive

Digging for Batteries and the Case of Indonesian Nickel

Bibliographic Data

ID6013684
AuthorsMatthew Libassi (0000-0002-9365-2571, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume16
Issue1
Pages90-111
Publication date2025-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2150-6779 • E-ISSN: 2150-6787
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/ares.2025.160106
OpenAlexW7102424581
LanguageEN
Citations received3

Dominant discourses assert that the energy transition will be mineral intensive and will therefore require more mining. This article reviews how scholars have analyzed the politics and socio-ecological consequences of the push for transition minerals through concepts such as green extractivism. It advances this literature by examining scholar and activist accounts from Indonesia, the world's largest producer of nickel. Counter to themes of North–South exploitation in the academic literature, Indonesian politicians frame the “downstreaming” of the country's nickel sector as a break from colonial patterns of raw material export. Local critics, however, refute this narrative by documenting concrete mechanisms—new configurations of state control, transnational capital, corruption, and socio-ecological harm—that produce deeply uneven outcomes within Indonesia. These insights underscore the need to examine subnational dynamics of transition mineral extraction while extending scholarship on how green extractivism operates through locally situated narratives, forms of coloniality, and processes of accumulation

Colonialism · Indonesian · Mineral resource classification · Narrative · Politics · Scholarship · Situated · State (computer science · Transition (genetics · Extraction and Separation Processes · Mining and Resource Management · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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Open DOIOpen Access