Nickel by Country: Indonesia Went From 8 Percent to 61 Percent
Indonesia's share of world nickel mine production rose from 8 percent in 2015 to 61 percent in 2024, the fastest concentration shift among these four materials.
Nickel shows the fastest country-level concentration shift of any material in this series, a genuine case study in how quickly a single national policy decision can redraw a critical mineral’s supply map.
Why this happened this fast
This trajectory traces directly to Indonesia’s export ban on unprocessed nickel ore, covered in depth on this material’s supply chain page, which forced processing investment into the country rather than allowing continued raw ore export, converting Indonesia’s large laterite resource base, covered on this material’s geology page, into dominant market share within a single policy cycle.
Processing concentration compounds the mining concentration
Indonesia’s 61 percent share of world mine production is compounded by a second concentration layer: Chinese firms hold roughly 72 percent of Indonesia’s own nickel refining capacity, covered on this material’s financing page, meaning the effective decision-making concentration for battery-grade nickel chemicals sits with a narrower set of companies than the country-level mining figures alone would suggest.
Sources: production shares and the Indonesia trajectory reference this project’s own verified production data (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025, historical series compiled from USGS annual editions).