Economic think tank INDEF fears that Indonesia might have not carefully planned the imminent ban on unprocessed bauxite ores.

A ban on unprocessed bauxite ores is set to come into effect on June 10 in a bid to drive domestic processing of the mineral. However, Indonesia may be far from ready once the ban enters into force. Indonesia’s success with its nickel downstream policy prompted the government to rush into banning exports of raw minerals such as bauxite. But the nickel value chain is incomparable to that of bauxite, according to INDEF researcher Andry Satrio Nugroho......