Acting natural resources and environmental sustainability minister Johari Ghani said these companies must also coordinate with the states where the REE deposits are located as state governments share joint responsibility with the federal government in REE development.
“If firms want to carry out mining operations here, the states first need to determine where these operations can take place. They cannot operate arbitrarily,” Johari said.
“If the sites are outside permanent forest reserves, we need to assess the deposits’ quantity. If the deposits are substantial, can factories be established?
“Companies must also outline how much tax revenue the state governments will receive, the number of jobs created, and the corporate taxes they will pay. They must go through all these processes.”
Johari was responding to a supplementary question from Hassan Karim (PH-Pasir Gudang), who asked whether the reciprocal trade agreement between Malaysia and the US could allow foreign powers to exploit the country’s mineral resources, similar to the British exploitation of tin in Perak during the colonial era.
Earlier in the Dewan Rakyat, Johari said Malaysia faced several challenges in developing the REE mining sector, including a lack of local expertise and technology, insufficient processing plants, and government policies that prohibit mining in permanent forest reserves, where 96% of deposits are located.
When asked by Ku Abdul Rahman Ku Ismail (PN-Kubang Pasu) whether the government had prepared a roadmap to address these challenges and enable state governments to mine these minerals, Johari said Putrajaya had informed state governments about the constraints in developing the sector.
“But I want to stress that REE development ultimately depends on the states themselves. If they do not grant approval for mining, nothing can move forward.
“At the federal level, our role is limited to enforcing environmental regulations and ensuring that raw REEs are not exported directly as we are looking to develop our own downstream and midstream industries,” he added.
Johari also said that a failure to develop downstream and midstream industries would limit states to collecting taxes.
He gave the example of Perak, where MCRE Resources Sdn Bhd’s Chinese partner sends lanthanide REEs in carbonate form to China for processing.