"2 workers killed in nickel waste landslide at China-owned plant in Indonesia", 28 April 2023

Two workers died after being buried under a heap of nickel waste at a processing plant in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, the company said Friday, adding credence to allegations of poor and unsafe labor conditions at the Chinese-owned complex. 

The accident at the PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park occurred Thursday when the Indonesian workers were dumping nickel waste known as slag, IMIP spokesman Dedy Kurniawan said. 

“We deeply regret that this incident happened, especially that there were two fatalities,” Kurniawan told BenarNews.

The industrial estate is majority-owned by China’s Tsingshan Steel Group. Earlier this year, Chinese workers filed a complaint claiming abuse at the same industrial park, while a mining watchdog alleged that seven people had died there since 2019.

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IMIP – a joint venture between Tsingshan and Indonesia’s Bintang Delapan Group [...].

The two men – identified only as Arif and Masriadi – worked for PT Indonesia Guang Ching Nickel & Stainless Steel Industry, a subsidiary of IMIP, Kurniawan said.

The spokesman said the company had determined that the mishap happened while the victims were working without supervision during the lunch hour.

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“The two victims only moved 10 meters from where they dumped the nickel waste material. After that they stopped to rest,” he said in a statement after Kurniawan spoke to the media. 

“They could not save themselves and were immediately buried by the nickel waste material,” said Supriyanto, who uses one name.

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