Malaysia Weighs Easing 2024 Rare Earth Export Ban as 16.1 Million-Tonne Reserves Draw Interest
Updated
Updated · Free Malaysia Today · Aug 2
Malaysia Weighs Easing 2024 Rare Earth Export Ban as 16.1 Million-Tonne Reserves Draw Interest
2 articles · Updated · Free Malaysia Today · Aug 2
Summary
Malaysia is assessing whether to relax its 2024 moratorium on raw rare earth exports as demand intensifies and pressure builds from states, miners and foreign investors.
Any reopening would come with conditions, deputy minister Syed Ibrahim said, including inbound investment, technology transfer and use of exported material for research and development abroad.
Interest is coming from the US, Australia, France and India, while Malaysia is pitching itself as a regional critical-minerals hub by 2030 and expanding projects from Lynas to Carester's planned Perak separation plant.
Malaysia's reserves total 16.1 million tonnes—about 1% of global supply versus China's more than 50%—so Kuala Lumpur is balancing supply-chain diversification goals with environmental limits because much of the ore lies in protected forests.
Lynas's role has also become politically sensitive after its US military supply deal triggered a parliamentary probe into whether the arrangement conflicts with Malaysia's foreign-policy stance on Palestine.