Qualampur: Malaysia is collaborating to expand the local refinement capacity on the rare Earth (RE) cooperation with China, after the government’s ban on unsafe exports.
The Ministry of Economy General Secretary Datuk nor Azmi Diron said that discussion with Beijing is difficult, as China’s policy is only to import raw materials and its processing plants or technology is not allowed to be transferred abroad.
The Malaysian Economic Research (Mier) Brown Bag Talk “RMK13: Policy Empowerment to Sustain Economic Growth” called Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (Mier) Brown Bag Talk said, “It is organized by China.”
Nor was the azmi being responding to the concern of a participant on the export of raw materials of Malaysia such as bauxite, where price -added products could generate high returns, where aluminum -like products can generate high returns.
He insisted that Malaysia has already adopted a policy to stop the export of both bauxite and rare earth.
“Of course, currently, we are banned on the export of raw materials. It should be bauxite, it should be again.”
Nor did Azmi report that Malaysia wants to balance the cooperation between Australia’s Linas, which is already working in the country, and there is possible cooperation with China.
“Our intention is both. Australia, which we consider Western, but we should also be part of China in Malaysia.”
Malaysia’s huge rare earth deposits estimate more than US $ 200 billion (RM844 billion), but the country lacks technology to process them.
Last month, Malaysia banned the export of unprocessed rare earth.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafarul Abdul Aziz said that the government wants international firms to invest in downstream processing within Malaysia instead of shipping raw materials abroad.
He said that the government is making Malaysia status as a processing center instead of a raw material supplier.
Tengku Zafarul said that Australia’s Linus Rare Earth, which processes rare earth and Gua Musang in Gabeng, Pahung, process the process of mining in Calton, is one of the players who are currently allowed to export from Malaysia, which allows exports to the processing under the new rules.
Rare Earth is important for electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies and electronics, dominating the global supply chain with China.
Although China produces about 70% of mining production, Beijing regulates about 90% of global processing, which holds a near-order through its refinement and separation technology, which it does not export.
According to the US Geological Survey, the United States took 70% of its rare earth imports from China in 2024, followed by 13% from Malaysia, 6% from Japan and 5% from Estonia. Some supply from outside China was still taken from concentrations processed in China and Australia.
