Jakarta. A huge investment is coming from Russian aluminum giant Rusal, according to President Prabowo Subianto, although the details remain scarce.

At Vladivostok’s Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday, Prabowo heavily promoted Indonesia as an investment destination, while announcing that some negotiations had made headway.

“We are going very far ahead in the field of processing, for instance, mining. We are working with a big, I think the biggest aluminum entity in the world: Rusal,” Prabowo told the conference that had his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the room.

“Rusal is coming in a big way to Indonesia, developing a refinery together with Indonesian groups.”

Prabowo did not disclose the name of the Indonesian partner to Rusal and the price tag of the project.

It is unclear whether this partnership will involve the sovereign wealth fund Danantara. All Indonesian state-owned enterprises and the aluminum miner Inalum have fallen under its wings. 

Prabowo called on the Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to immediately activate its joint fund with Danantara.

In 2025, the agencies set up a joint fund of up to 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), where the money will go to investment opportunities in both countries.

"[We hope] they can move from identifying possibilities to financing bankable projects," Prabowo said.

Asked about the Rusal plan the next day, Edi Prio Pambudi — a senior official at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs — replied that the government would still  “need to have internal discussions on the technical details.” 

Indonesia reported that inflows of Russian investments were close to $100 million in the first half of 2026.

According to the US Geological Survey, Indonesia’s bauxite reserves — a mainstay ingredient in aluminum production — stand at 2.9 billion metric dry tons. Domestic alumina production stood at around 1.5 million dry metric tons in 2025, while bauxite output reached 10 million dry metric tons that same year.

Alumina is the refined intermediate product from bauxite.

Rusal claimed to be the world’s largest low-carbon aluminum producer, saying that a vast portion of its production relies on renewables. They made up 5.3% of global aluminum production — indispensable for electrical transmission grids and consumer electronics — last year.

Add as a preferred source on Google +