"Joint Letter from 25 Indonesian Civil Society Organisations Regarding Smelter Investment by Stellantis with Vale and Huayou Cobalt", 26 March 2025

To : Mr. John Elkann

Chairman, Stellantis N.V.

Taurusavenue 1
2132 LS Hoofddorp

The Netherlands

Dear Mr. John Elkann,

We are writing to express serious concern that, without meaningful safeguards, Stellantis’s proposed investment in a nickel processing facility with Vale Indonesia and Huayou Cobalt will seriously endanger Indigenous People and local communities, workers, and the environment.

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This letter follows mounting evidence (listed below) of human rights violations, deforestation, and severe climate impacts caused by nickel mining and processing across Indonesia.

• Nickel mining in Indonesia is taking place in biodiversity hotspots, home to an array of endemic species in the transition zone between Eurasian and Australian flora and fauna. Sulawesi and the Maluku islands, dubbed as “living laboratories of evolution,” have seen over 76,000 hectares of forest cleared for nickel mining since 2000. An additional half a million hectares under threat by the expansion of the nickel industry.
• Research conducted by Satya Bumi (2024) shows the supply chain relationship with a small island, Kabaena, with the world’s last sea nomadic tribe, the Bajau tribe. Causing death and changes in the lifestyle of the sea tribe. This illegal and unethical mining sends battery materials used by Stellantis.
• Stellantis 2023 CSR report, on page 280, shows that the company receives battery material inputs from nickel mining in Indonesia, which are associated with mineral conflicts.
• Also, it was found that Stellantis formed a Joint Venture partnership with South Korea’s battery maker, Samsung SDI, to build an electric vehicle battery plant in North America, scheduled to open in 2027 with an initial production capacity of 34 gigawatt-hours per year. Similar to CATL, Samsung SDI also receives raw materials for battery production from nickel mining companies operating in the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP).
• Research conducted by Survival International (2024) shows that nickel mining in Maluku poses a serious threat of genocide to the uncontacted Indigenous Hongana Manyawa people. The largest company operating on their territory, (Weda Bay Nickel) is part owned by French mining company Eramet, which Stellantis has signed an MoU with.
• As mining companies encroach on land belonging to local communities, these communities and environmental defenders are increasingly criminalised for defending their land against mining operations.
• In December 2023, an explosion at a nickel processing facility in Morowali Industrial Park, operated by PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry, killed 13 people and left 46 injured. Across Indonesia, 47 deaths and 76 injuries occurred at nickel sites between 2015 and 2022, reflecting the dangers workers face at nickel smelters.
• The high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) process used to extract nickel from laterite mines in Indonesia leaves behind tailings which turn the ocean red, pollute other waterways and displace local communities.
• Currently, captive coal plants are used to process nickel mined in Indonesia, generating more CO₂ emissions for nickel than in other countries. The captive coal capacity of the Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) and Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) will have 5 GW of generating capacity from coal-fired plants – or as much capacity as the entire nation of Pakistan. Building coal plants to support nickel production is putting Indonesia on the path to be one of the highest climate-polluting countries in the world – and threatening to undermine the climate benefits of EVs.

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