SMM visited GEM in Indonesia to conduct in-depth discussions on the company's layout in the nickel industry in Indonesia.

After the 2025 Indonesia Mining Conference & Critical Metals Conference, Wu Chenyu, SMM's Marketing Director of the Nickel Industry, and Enzo, a nickel industry analyst, led international investors to visit and exchange ideas at GEM's Jakarta office, where they were warmly welcomed by the company's leadership. Through this visit, SMM and international investors gained a deeper understanding of GEM's products, technologies, and corporate development. Meanwhile, they also developed a more profound understanding of the current market situation and existing issues in the nickel industry. They will continue to deepen cooperation with major enterprises to achieve complementary advantages and jointly promote the development of the global nickel industry.

Company Profile

GEM is headquartered in Shenzhen, China. It was founded in 2002 by Professor Xu Kaihua. GEM stands for Green Eco Manufacture (G—Green, E—Eco, M—Manufacture). In 2003, GEM pioneered the industrial concept of "limited resources, infinite recycling" and advocated a business model of mining urban mines to resolve the contradictions between resource crises, environmental pollution, and climate warming. It has been listed on both the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Swiss Stock Exchange, becoming the first publicly listed firm in China's resource recycling sector. With a net worth of over $4 billion, a share capital of 5.4 billion shares, an annual output value of over $6 billion, and a workforce of over 15,000 employees (including over 5,000 foreign employees), GEM has established 19 waste recycling plants and new energy material manufacturing bases across 11 provinces and cities in China, as well as in South Korea, Indonesia, and South Africa. It ranks first among private environmental protection enterprises in China, recycling 10% of the world's scrap power batteries and 10% of China's total scrap electronic waste. The ternary cathode precursor materials it manufactures are assembled in 15% of the world's ternary new energy vehicles, and the recycled LCO materials it produces are assembled in 30% of the world's digital mobile phones. As a world-leading waste recycling enterprise, GEM has been awarded the titles of National Green Factory, National Circular Economy Demonstration Enterprise, National Urban Mine Demonstration Base, National Ecological Civilization Popularization Base, and National Environmental Education Base for Primary and Secondary Schools by the Chinese government. The National Waste Engineering Technology Center and the National Key Laboratory of Energy Metal Resources and New Materials have been established at GEM. GEM's contributions to global waste reduction have been featured in the journal <NATURE>, and it has won the 2018 Circular Economy Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos and the 2020 Paulson Institute Green Innovation Award. From 2023 to 2024, GEM has represented Chinese enterprises at the COP28/COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conferences to report on China's achievements in green development. It has emerged as a global leader in urban mining and a driver of the global new energy industry, becoming an outstanding representative in promoting global green development and carbon emission reduction.

In July 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the GEM Wuhan Park. He highly commended GEM's waste recycling model, stating, "Transforming waste into treasure and recycling it is a sunrise industry. Garbage is a resource in the wrong place. Turning garbage into resources is like transforming decay into magic; it is both science and art. I hope the enterprise will continue to make progress."

In September 2018, as the first enterprise in China's new energy industry, GEM took the lead in investing and developing in Indonesia. It was the first to propose the industrial concept of "investing in laterite nickel ore to produce new energy materials," becoming a pioneer in driving the transformation of Indonesia's nickel resources from the traditional stainless steel smelting model to a green smelting model for new energy. Since 2019, GEM has taken the lead in leveraging China's flexible strength of "technology + culture" to build scientific research centers and cultivate senior metallurgical engineering and technical talents for Indonesia, promoting the localization of metallurgical technology, technical talents, and intellectual property rights in Indonesia. This has enabled Chinese technology and education to benefit Indonesia, win the hearts of the people, and create a new history of scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges between China and Indonesia.

The company has invested in nickel resource projects to drive the transformation of Indonesia's nickel resources from stainless steel smelting to new energy material production. Specifically, since January 2019, GEM has invested US$3.7 billion in the IMIP Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, to build a "high-tech, intelligent, and green" nickel resource industrial park, creating eight highlights that have attracted global attention. It is the world's first park to directly produce the "entire industry chain" of "MHP-nickel sulphate crystals-electrodeposited nickel-ternary cathode precursor-ternary cathode material" from laterite nickel ore, with a total output value expected to exceed US$4 billion. The world's first single-park MHP with an annual production capacity of 150,000 mt of metallic nickel has been successfully operated; the world's first successful case of hydrometallurgy (HPAL) of laterite nickel ore with independent technology, design, and operation by an enterprise; the world's first successful application case of an ultra-large-capacity 1,168 m³ high-temperature and high-pressure reactor; in October 2024, Indonesia's first production line with an annual output capacity of 50,000 mt of ternary cathode precursor materials was completed and put into operation; in August 2025, Indonesia's first production line with an annual output capacity of 30,000 mt of ultra-high-nickel cathode materials will be completed and put into operation; input-output, product quality, and economic benefits are all at the world's top level; the localization of technology, talents, and intellectual property rights has been implemented; in 2024, GEM's Indonesia Park achieved an export value of US$2.1 billion, paid various taxes of US$250 million, and created 7,000 jobs.

Faced with the long-standing situation where Indonesia's nickel resources could only be developed by foreign enterprises, Professor Xu Kaihua exported technology and established an ESG joint venture with Merdeka, a local Indonesian mining enterprise, as the controlling shareholder. This has become the first company in Indonesia's history to be led by local Indonesian mine owners in the high-quality development of nickel resources for new energy material production, promoting in-depth cooperation between Chinese technology and Indonesian resources, and achieving a balance between taking and giving. The joint venture agreement for the project was signed on October 16, 2023, witnessed by President Joko Widodo. The project commenced operations in November 2024, setting a global precedent by achieving production within just 12 months from signing the agreement. In 2024, it produced over 2,000 mt of MHP containing metal nickel.

Additionally, the company has established Indonesia's first green nickel park. On November 10, 2024, during Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's first visit to China, he witnessed the signing of an agreement between GEM and VALE to construct a world-class zero-carbon nickel resource park, aiming to green Indonesia's nickel industry. Located in SAMBALAGI, Morowali, the park adopts a fully green design concept, making it the world's first HPAL zero-carbon green factory. It serves as a representative park for Indonesia's nickel resource industry to transition towards green nickel, and as a pioneer in Indonesia's carbon neutrality efforts.

The park adopts a design philosophy of "green + safety + technology + intelligence + circular economy education," incorporating eight green elements: green energy, green manufacturing, green wetlands, biodiversity conservation, green transportation, energy conservation and consumption reduction, low-carbon consumption, and forest parks, to meet the global demand for carbon footprints in new energy. The park utilizes green energy, eschewing coal-fired power and relying 100% on green electricity, supplied by a combination of "waste heat + PV + biomass energy," and implements carbon footprint flow management.

The park holds six significant positions in the global nickel resource and downstream industry chain: a world-class green park for nickel resources and downstream industry chain, a world-class high-tech smart industrial park for the entire industry chain of nickel resources, a world-class consumption and exhibition center for new energy and recycling products, a world-class recycling center for retired power batteries and scrap, a world-class innovation center for nickel resources and downstream industry chain, and a world-class ESG benchmarking park.