Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani recently said that the French mining giant Eramet was looking to invest in South Sulawesi and Papua.

In Indonesia, Eramet is a minority shareholder in the Weda Bay Nickel joint venture which it operates alongside Chinese nickel firm Tsingshan Holding Group and state gold miner Antam. This entity develops an open-pit mining operation in Halmahera Island, North Maluku. 

Earlier this week, Eramet Group’s chief executive officer Christel Bories visited Rosan in his office to discuss the French company’s operation plans in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. In a social media post, Rosan revealed that Eramet sought to help Indonesia process its critical minerals at home and develop the country’s electric vehicle (EV) development ecosystem.

“Eramet also laid out its investment plans to explore new areas in South Sulawesi and Papua. 

They also talked of [investment plans] for a responsible green electric vehicles project that will involve several strategic partners,” Rosan wrote Tuesday.

“This collaboration is also expected to create jobs and boost technology transfer,” he said.

Later that day, Rosan told reporters that Eramet was “not only looking to be a contractor, but also develop some sort of production in Indonesia in partnership with a state-owned company.”

He also gave his word that his ministry would help facilitate Eramet’s investment plans in Indonesia.

Eramet data shows that the Weda Bay is the world’s largest nickel mine, representing 17 percent of the global production. 

Last year, Indonesia amassed around IDR 1,714.2 trillion or approximately USD 105 billion in combined investments throughout 2024. About 52.5 percent of that money came from foreign investors. France ranked 16th place in terms of Indonesia's largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) that year. The European country invested approximately USD 328.1 million in Indonesia over the said period. The French investment went to 6,437 projects. 

Nickel is a mainstay ingredient in EV battery production. Indonesia posted IDR 153.2 trillion investments in the nickel smelting industry for the entirety of 2024. The Indonesian EV battery ecosystem also booked IDR 8.4 trillion in investments.

In 2022, Eramet and German chemical producer BASF unveiled plans to jointly invest in Sonic Bay, a hydrometallurgical plant project in Halmahera. The project was set to process nickel and cobalt for EV battery production. However, Eramet-BASF announced last year that they would withdraw from the USD 2.6 billion project.