Bantaeng’s Dust Season: Living on the Front Lines of the Nickel Boom

One afternoon in October 2025, thick black smoke billowed from the stack of a nickel smelter in Pa’jukukang district, Bantaeng, South Sulawesi. Carried by the wind, it crept beneath a gray sky, seeping into nearby neighborhoods and unsettling residents’ lives.

For local residents, it’s an everyday sight. Under the government’s push for downstream nickel processing, foreign-backed companies have built smelters across Pa’jukukang. Much of the development is concentrated in a roughly 3,200-hectare area spanning six villages, designated as the Bantaeng Industrial Park (BIP). The transformation has upended daily life in surrounding communities.

Take Ambo Enre. The 77-year-old resident of Papanloe village in Pa’jukukang lives in a stilt house wedged between two nickel smelter facilities that run day and night.

“If the companies came and saw for themselves, maybe they would understand how we live under the smoke,” said Ambo.

“When the wind blows this way, my eyes sting, my breathing gets shallow.”

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In early 2016, the government designated BIP a national strategic project (PSN), a status that eased approvals and strengthened state backing, including for permits and land acquisition.

PT Huadi Nickel-Alloy Indonesia’s smelter was formally inaugurated in January 2019, after undergoing production trials in 2018.

More smelters followed, including those built by PT Hengsheng New Energy Material Indonesia, PT Unity Nickel Alloy Indonesia, PT Dowstone Energy Material Indonesia, PT Huadi Wuzhou Nickel Industry, PT Yatai Huadi Alloy Indonesia, and PT Huadi Yatai Nickel Industry. Jatam’s investigation says these firms are all part of the Huadi Group.

Since then, the once green and idyllic Papanloe village has slowly turned barren.

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“There’s no arable land left,” Ambo said.

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So far, neither the government nor the companies have taken concrete steps to address the mounting harms from large-scale nickel processing at the BIP. More trees are withering, the air is increasingly difficult to breathe, and residents’ living space continues to shrink.

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Not a single student wore a mask. They were used to it, the teacher said, referring to the smoke, dust, and sulfur stench.

[...]Project Multatuli has sent requests for comment to Huadi Group by email and via a form on the group’s website, but has not received a response by the time of publication.