Malaysia’s Rare Earth Rush: Can Malaysia Extract High-Value Minerals Without Killing Its Rainforests?

Malaysia is at a new stage of the natural resource economy. With the world’s ever-increasing demand towards the rare earth elements, the country is considering how it can increase mining and processing rare earth elements. Low pressure has however led to important debate; can Malaysia have its rare earth industry without destroying its delicate rainforest ecosystems?

The difficulty in the issue draws attention to the tough nature of the balance between economical prospects and nature safety.

Why Rare Earth Minerals Have Just Become so Worthy?

Modern technologies are dependent on rare earth elements. Their applications in such products include:

• Electric vehicles
• Wind turbines
• Smartphones
• Military equipment
• Advanced batteries

The world of countries is competing to have ready sources of such minerals. Currently, China has the largest share of processing rare earths in the world that has forced other countries to extend their supply chain.

Malaysia has been identified in that strategy because of the nature of its geological potential and the presence of refinery facilities available.

Malaysia have supply of rare earth

Malaysia is already a significant participant in the global rare earth business by the highly contentious processing plant financed by Lynas Rare Earths at Kuantan.

The plant refines rare earth materials imported to it by Australia and thus is one of the limited non-Chinese countries which has a large scale rare earth refining capacity.

The policymakers are currently considering developing the domestic extraction of rare earth including in the states like Perak and Pahang where mineral deposits are identified.

The Environmental Concerns

There are some of the oldest tropical rain forests in Malaysia. Such ecosystems maintain extraordinary biodiversity and are very imperative in the regulation of climate as well as safeguarding water sources.

The environmental organizations caution that the mining of rare earth may cause a number of risks:

• Deforestation and environmental destruction.
• Erosion and water pollution of soil.
• Mineral processing radioactive wastes.

Since some of the deposits of the rare earths found are in forests, mining activities will pose a threat to sensitive ecological habitats in case they are poorly handled.

Lessons learned from Past Controversies

Skepticism on the part of the people towards the projects in the rare earth in Malaysia is partly because of the controversies that existed in the past in the processing plant of Lynas.

Certain communities and environmentalists expressed some concerns over radioactive wastes and long term health hazards. Although the authorities claim that there is an improvement in safety standards, this matter is still highly political.

Consequently, the Malaysian government is under pressure to have good environmental control over the mining activities before the expansion of mining activities.

Can Sustainable Mining Work?

According to the government of Malaysia, the modern technologies might enable the extraction of rare earth without as much environmental impact as it used to be previously.

The possible protective measures are:

• Vigorous environmental impact surveys.
• Mining in areas with forests should be restricted.
• The waste-management systems should be improved.
• Checking the quality of water and soil.

According to the authorities, it is supposed to develop a responsible rare earth sector that will drive economic development without damaging natural ecosystems.

A Global Resource Race

The pattern of the rare earth ambitions of Malaysia is a bigger picture on the international front. In the case of the countries shifting to clean energy technologies, there is a high possibility of sharp increase in the demand of rare earth minerals.

This strains resource rich nations to produce more, however it also compels countries to deal with the environmental impact of mining.

The rare earth rush offers Malaysia a big opportunity as well as a big challenge, whether the country can achieve economic development and concurrently protect rainforests.

FAQs