The island's population is approximately 450 living at Gambier Bay. This community was established in the early 1960s by people moving to the island in the hope of finding work with nickel exploration ventures at that time.
Economy
Gag Island represents one of the largest nickel reserve in Indonesia having estimated reserves of 240 million tonnes of ore grading 1.35% nickel.[1] The 240 million tonnes of ore contains 3.24 million tonnes of nickel metal.[1]
In 1996 the PT Gag Nikel company was formed as a joint venture agreement between BHP (75%) and Indonesia's state-owned mining company, Aneka Tambang (25%). A contract of work was awarded in February 1998, and a program of exploration and preliminary evaluation was conducted. In late 1999, the Government of Indonesia enacted a forestry law prohibiting open cast mining in "protection forest" areas. The forest on Gag Island was subsequently reclassified as "protection forest", stopping any mining activity on the island.
Mining had resumed in Gag since 2017, following an exploration phase.[2]
