Harita Nickel has a smelting-company shareholder tied to Como 1907’s owners, the Hartono family. The family holds a stake in a smelting company within Indonesia’s Harita Nickel project, where residents have reported pollution, land disputes and pressure to relocate. Josimar’s “I wish I had a nickel” investigation traces that interest through companies tied to the owners of The Djarum Group, whose Italian football club has risen into Europe’s elite.
The stake connects the family’s expanding business portfolio to a nickel operation whose local effects have drawn complaints from residents and environmental groups. The investigation says the family owns 23% of PT Halmahera Jaya Feronikel, a downstream smelting company in the Harita Nickel project on Obi Island.
Its account of the ownership links describes a corporate chain from PT Halmahera Jaya Feronikel through PT Obira Mitra Jaya and PT Sarana Cipta Multiniaga to companies tied directly to Robert Budi Hartono and his family. The Hartonos control Djarum, the conglomerate that took charge of Como in 2019.
The “I Wish I Had” Ownership Investigation
The story places the investment alongside Como’s rapid sporting rise and the family’s other holdings. But the business connection it details leads to Obi Island, where mining and processing have affected Kawasi, a village on the island’s waterfront.
According to the investigation, leaked internal records showed Harita management knew in 2012 that operations were contaminating drinking water with chromium 6. The source reports levels exceeded World Health Organization guidance and Indonesian legal limits. It says the company did not warn local villagers.
Indonesian rules limit chromium 6 in drinking water to 0,01 mg/l, the investigation reports. Harita’s director of Health, Safety and Environment, Tonny Gultom, knew the pollution stemmed from mining and factory runoff, according to the source. Corporate records also show Gultom remains a director at PT Obira Mitra Jaya, a company in the ownership chain.
Residents Describe Costs on Obi Island
Residents of Kawasi have reported escalating land disputes, water contamination, damage to fisheries and farms, unwanted relocation, and unequal access to public services. Those complaints appeared in a report by the Corporate Responsibility Initiative last year, as described by the investigation.
In August, environmental group Walhi reported green seawater and dead fish washing ashore on neighboring Bisla Island. It linked the disruption to heavy barge traffic and industrial waste. In May, Kawasi villagers demanded justice over severe flooding they alleged Harita’s operations had caused.
Ahmad Rumasukun, an environmental lawyer representing the North Maluku Environmental Lawyers Coalition, told the outlet that smelter activity brought waste, dust, sea siltation and a clean-water crisis. Walhi campaigner Faizal Ratuela said weak state oversight and failures in corporate environmental governance contributed to the crisis.
Harita Nickel’s operating companies have received ISO 14001 environmental management certifications, one in 2023 and another in 2024. Ratuela dismissed the certificates as cosmetic. The investigation also reports that Walhi representatives and journalists said they faced intimidation and surveillance in July, while villagers and fishermen protested the company’s activities later in the summer.
Ownership and Accountability Questions
The family’s stake is part of a broader financing picture. The investigation says Djarum’s holding company agreed to provide $80 million in debt financing to PT Trimegah Bangun Persada, while Bank Central Asia sought to provide over $65 million in aggregate debt financing for mineral processing facilities on Obi Island.
Harita Nickel went public in 2023, raising $660 million, the source reports. It says the company and The Djarum Group did not respond to questions. The investigation also reports that Clifford Chance, an adviser on the initial public offering, did not reply to its request for comment.
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