Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.
KUALA LUMPUR: The development of the rare earth element industry will go through a strict engagement process at the federal and state government levels to ensure that the sector’s value chain is developed domestically.
Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said that the federal government will take into account environmental aspects and the export of rare earths, while the state governments are directly involved in granting permission to mine the minerals.
“We want to ensure that the minerals are not exported arbitrarily because we want to ensure that upstream, midstream and downstream activities are developed within the country.
“Rare-earth development cannot be done quickly because Malaysia does not yet have the expertise and technology on a commercial scale to carry out mining of the minerals,” he told the Dewan Rakyat in reply to a question from Datuk Dr Ku Abd Rahman Ku Ismail.
Commenting on concerns about the risk of “modern colonisation” through foreign interest in the country’s rare earth resources, Johari, who is also the acting Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability minister, stressed that the country has a strong legal structure and approval process.
“Investors must go through our process. We will look at the location, reserve value, potential for factory construction, job opportunities and revenue for the state. We are a sovereign country and we defend our rights,” he said.
Touching on the constraints facing the country, Johari explained that the lack of expertise in developing the industry has forced Malaysia to rely on external technology to carry out development of rare earth elements.
“Malaysia does not yet have a processing plant capable of separating high-value minerals commercially, and currently the global value chain for processing and separation is dominated by China, which also controls the export of rare earth-related technology,” he said.
Taking the example of mining in Perak, Johari said that local companies have partnered with companies from China for mining and the minerals are shipped to China for processing.
“The state government only gets tribute, we do not want that to happen again,” he added.
Johari said the constraints faced by the country make it difficult for Malaysia to develop the entire value chain from mining, processing and production of value-added products.
He stressed that Malaysia also faces the issue of a lack of comprehensive data on the location, quantity and grade as well as land use status of rare-earth resources.
“The initial estimate of rare-earth elements by the Department of Mineral and Geoscience Malaysia is still at the inferred resource level and requires further detailed studies to determine the actual amount that can be mined economically and sustainably,” he added.
Johari said that due to constraints in developing the industry, the government has formulated a strategy for developing the industry in phases covering the short term from 2025 to 2027, the medium term from 2027 to 2030, and the long term after 2030.
“In the short term, the moratorium policy on crude exports is maintained to encourage investment and also refining, separation and production of value-added products in the country,” he said. — Bernama
